In the early morning of March 25, Beijing time, the Semifinals of the European Zone Play-offs of the World Preliminary Round were played in four matches, Portugal defeated Turkey 3-1, Italy lost 0-1 to North Macedonia, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic 1-0, Wales defeated Austria 2-1, Scotland and Ukraine postponed the semi-finals, and the match between Russia and Poland was cancelled.
Poland in the World Preliminaries is not in good shape, the last World Preliminary Tournament 1-2 loss to Hungary, to the second place in the group into the play-offs, originally their direct dialogue with Russia was not optimistic, the last 8 against Russia, Poland only 1 win, lost 3 games, Russia can be said to be Poland's big nemesis, the game was cancelled, Poland got a great advantage, directly lying in the final, but they want to usher in a bigger super nemesis Sweden.
According to the historical meeting results, Poland suffered six consecutive defeats against Sweden, starting from the 1999 European Championship qualifiers to last summer's Euro 2019 group stage, Poland lost all six times against Sweden. The last 12 against Sweden, Poland have won just one. Now, Sweden is in hot form, eliminating the resilient Czech Republic 1-0 in the semi-finals of the play-offs, which is a key victory in the absence of Ibrahimovic, proving that Sweden is still a good whole, continuing the status of the last World Cup, they reached the top 8 of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when there was no Ibrahimovic.
Sweden is currently ranked 17th in the world and Poland is ranked 28th in the world. After the 1-0 elimination of the Czech Republic, Swedish coach Anderson looked forward to the final, saying that playing overtime in the semi-finals was more beneficial to the Swedish team as a whole, allowing more players to find the feeling of the game so that they could play stronger in the next game. In contrast, Poland's long absence from an official match means that their form and overall strength may be limited, and it is likely to continue the situation when they lost 2-1 to Hungary in the final round of the World Preliminary Group Stage, and in the face of the big nemesis Sweden, Levan may once again miss the World Cup, fearing a 7-game losing streak against Sweden.
In the case of Sweden's overall dominance, Ibrahimovic may return to the World Cup stage, his career has participated in a total of 2 World Cups, the 2002 World Cup and the 2006 World Cup, after many years to return to the World Cup, which is a great recognition for Ibrahimovic, after all, he is now 40 years old. During the World Preliminaries, Ibrahimovic played the role of team leader, played 4 games and delivered 2 assists, and although he was suspended from the semi-finals of the play-offs, he still influenced the team, giving advice to his teammates in overtime in time to keep Lindelof and others calm. According to past performances, Ibrahimovic has not yet scored in the World Cup, and the 2022 World Cup may be his last chance, hoping that he can realize his dream.