Poland 3-2 Austria

Poland have re-taken first place from England in group 6 of the FIFA World Cup European qualifying zone, and in doing so, have guaranteed themselves a place in the play-offs with a dramatic 3-2 win against Austria.

The Poles took an early lead when Polands Smolarek scored after only twelve minutes being played. The score was doubled by Southampton's Kami Kosowski in the 20th minute.

Austrias second half substitute Roland Linz came on to give the Austrians some much needed vigour, and managed to score to make it 2-1 to Poland.

But within minutes, a penalty was awarded to the home side. Celtic striker Maciej Zurawski stepped up to take the penalty, which was saved magnificently by keeper Schranz, but the ball came back to Zurawski, who kept his composure, skipping past the keeper, and putting the ball in the back of the net, 3-1 Poland. A harsh blow for the Austrians.

Austrias Linz grabbed a second goal in the 81st minute to give the visitors some deserved belief, but the luck was not with them. The spectacular Linz could easily have scored four goals, with his shots damaging the wood-work on two occasions.

The wood-work rattled again with the Pole Zuranskis shot, before he managed to score his second goal in the 90th minute.

That was not the end of it, with the Austrians, and more specifically the excellent Linz, not showing any signs of giving-up, and with one last assault on the Polish goal, in the final seconds of the match the Poles made a goal-line clearance, to deny Austria any chance of appearing in next years finals.

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