STOCKHOLM (REUTERS) - An error by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris handed Sweden's Ola Toivonen a last-gasp goal to secure a 2-1 win in their World Cup Group A qualifier at the Friends Arena on Friday.
Lloris' poor clearance fell straight to the Toulouse midfielder who lobbed the keeper from inside his own half to steal the points, and delight the home fans and their celebrating players.
France had led through a superb left-foot strike by forward Olivier Giroud after 37 minutes, but that was cancelled out by a precise low finish from Sweden's Jimmy Durmaz in the 43rd minute.
The win put Sweden top of the group, level on 13 points with France and three ahead of the Netherlands, who beat visiting Luxembourg 5-0 on Friday.
The Swedes, who had lost 2-1 when the sides met in Paris in November, spent the opening half-hour frustrating the visitors, getting stuck in to challenges and slowing the tempo, but that all changed when Giroud scored and the game burst into life.
France forward Antoine Griezmann twice-headed straight at Robin Olsen in the second half, but went closer with a free kick from distance that the goalkeeper scrambled to parry as the beaten Euro 2016 finalists upped the tempo.
Minutes later, Lloris was tipping an Emil Forsberg free-kick over the bar, and Sweden's Jakob Johansson also had a thumping shot from distance that flew just wide of the target.
France brought on teenage striker Kylian Mbappe late on, but it was Swedish substitute Sebastian Larsson who pressured Lloris into making the bad clearance that gave Toivonen the chance to win the game for the home side, and he took it gleefully.
"It's a fantastic game by the whole team," a tearful Toivonen told Swedish TV after the unlikely victory.
"The last 20, 15 minutes it was tough for us, but with the power of the crowd we had the energy to go the whole way."
Exasperated France coach Didier Deschamps told a news conference: "Sure, he (Lloris) should have cleared it and sent the ball up the pitch, he knows that and I can't keep repeating it.
After a closely-fought 2-1 loss in Paris, Sweden coach Jan Andersson was a lot happier in Stockholm.
"As soon as he (Toivonen) hit the ball, I started celebrating as if it was already a goal, it was the right player that got the chance," Andersson told reporters.
"It was a tremendous experience. It's luck too, that we got that chance.
"I think we had to work a lot harder in the second half than we did in Paris, but on the whole I don't think it's unfair that they won there and we won here. We had a little luck today, but I'm very happy with how the players played."
Asked if he felt any sympathy for Lloris, Andersson gave a wry smile.
"It was Ola Toivonen that decided the game," he said, before returning to the celebrations in Sweden's dressing room.
