Even with two goals, Robert Lewandowski still couldn’t stop Poland from an early exit the European Championship.
The FIFA player of the year made amends for an astounding early triple miss by scoring twice in the second half on Wednesday, but Viktor Claesson put in the winning goal in stoppage to give Sweden a 3-2 victory.
Emil Forsberg scored twice for the Swedes, which finish in first place in Group E and will next face a third-place finisher in Glasgow on Tuesday.
For Poland and Lewandowski, it’s another early exit from a major soccer tournament.
The Bayern Munich striker leaves Euro 2020 with three goals, his best haul at a World Cup or European Championship. But even his double against Sweden – in the 61st and 84th minutes – might be overshadowed by an extraordinary sequence of events in the first half when he headed the ball against the crossbar twice in as many seconds.
After the second one, the ball landed at the striker’s feet in front of goal but it got caught in between his legs and he still couldn’t score.
Forsberg had already scored by then, after 81 seconds for the second quickest goal in the tournament’s history. He added a second in the 59th on a counterattack.
Poland needed a win to advance, but they couldn’t even hold on for the draw after Claesson broke free for the final goal in the last seconds.
