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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Guardian sport and agencies

Nations League: Gyökeres scores four for Sweden in rout of Azerbaijan

Sweden’s Viktor Gyökeres celebrates by bouncing the ball around dejected defenders after scoring his fourth goal of the night in Tuesday evening’s 6-0 win against Azerbaijan.
Sweden’s Viktor Gyökeres after his fourth goal in Tuesday evening’s 6-0 win against Azerbaijan. Photograph: Jesper Zerman/Bildbyrån/Shutterstock

The Sweden forward Viktor Gyökeres netted four goals on Tuesday to overtake Erling Haaland as the top scorer in the Nations League.

Gyökeres started the evening with five goals from five Nations League games. His third goal in the 6-0 win against Azerbaijan, in the 58th minute, took the Sporting forward to eight in this edition of the competition. Gyökeres, one of the most in-demand players in the world, did not stop after overtaking Haaland and added his fourth goal on 70 minutes.

Haaland had been the top scorer ahead of the final evening of games after the Manchester City striker scored seven goals for Norway, including a hat trick in a 5-0 win over Kazakhstan on Sunday.

Ukraine reached the League A/B playoffs after they beat Albania 2-1. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Roman Yaremchuk put Ukraine in a commanding position with two goals in the first 10 minutes but the visitors were left clinging on after Nedim Bajrami’s second-half penalty halved the deficit.

An already-qualified Germany conceded a stoppage-time equaliser and had to settle for a 1-1 draw against hosts Hungary in their final group match on Tuesday. Dominik Szoboszlai netted a penalty with the last kick of the game to cancel out Felix Nmecha’s 76th-minute goal.

Bosnia and Herzegovina fought back to claim only their second point of their Nations League campaign as they held a second-string Netherlands side to a 1-1 draw. Ermedin Demirovic equalised in the 67th minute, as Bosnia chased a positive result in an effort to give veteran striker Edin Dzeko a fitting send-off in his final international. Brian Brobbey had given a much-changed Dutch outfit the lead at the Bilino Polje Stadium after Ronald Koeman fielded an entirely fresh lineup for their last fixture in Group A3.

The Netherlands had already secured second place in the group, and a spot in the quarter-finals in March, with a 4-0 win over Hungary on Saturday while Bosnia’s relegation from the top tier of the Nations League was confirmed after losing 7-0 to Germany at the same time.

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