A victory at a packed Strawberry Arena in Solna is what is needed to take Sweden to this summer's World Cup.
A huge opportunity, admits national coach Graham Potter.
"I wouldn't trade this for anything else. I'm so happy and proud to be here. It's an incredible chance to play for a World Cup ticket, against a very good team in front of a packed stadium, in a very passionate and proud football country," he says.
Close to the goal
On September 27th of last year, Potter was fired from Premier League side West Ham. At the time, the Swedish national team had embarked on a fiasco-like World Cup qualifying campaign that led to Dane Jon Dahl Tomasson being fired from his job as national team coach a few weeks later.
In came Potter, known in Sweden as the coach behind the successful Östersund team from 2011 to 2018, and the Englishman announced that together with the Swedish players he wanted to "realize the supporters' dream of a championship summer."
Now he is extremely close to succeeding.
“Fantastic opportunity”
A strange contrast to the feeling just six months ago, when he had to leave West Ham?
"No, it doesn't feel strange. It just feels like a fantastic opportunity," Potter says.
I don't think much about what has been. When you reach a certain point in life, you are most grateful for all the opportunities you have, and this time it has brought me here.
The 3-1 victory in the playoff semi-final against Ukraine on Thursday already showed that he has put the national team on the right track. But that doesn't really matter tonight.
I was happy with a lot of things and it's been a long time since we won an important game. So to do it, and the way we did it, was very positive. But now we have to start over; it doesn't matter that it looked good last time.
Sweden–Poland kicks off at 8:45 p.m.
