Robert Lewandowski helped Poland come from behind to scrape past Albania 2-1 after Arber Hoxha gave the visitors the lead in Warsaw. Poland will now face Sweden, who defeated Ukraine, in Stockholm for one of four remaining European places at the World Cup.
Lewandowski headed in from a second-half corner to bring Poland level with his 89th goal for his country before Piotr Zielinski grabbed the winner 10 minutes later.
Denmark eased to a 4-0 victory over North Macedonia in Copenhagen with all the goals coming in the second half. Denmark will now take on Czech Republic, who edged past the Republic of Ireland on penalties, in Prague in their playoff final.
Mikkel Damsgaard broke the deadlock for Denmark just after half-time and Gustav Isaksen scored twice in as many minutes, before Christian Nørgaard added a fourth.
Kosovo are on the brink of a first appearance at any major tournament following a wild 4-3 win in Slovakia. The hosts twice led in Bratislava through goals from Martin Valjent and Lukas Haraslin, but Kosovo fought back with efforts from Veldin Hodza and Fisnik Asllani.
Kosovo, who were only admitted to Uefa and Fifa competitions a decade ago, then went in front courtesy of Florent Muslija and got another goal from Kreshnik Hajrizi. David Strelec’s stoppage-time strike wasn’t enough to deny Kosovo, who will host Turkey for the right to go to the World Cup.
Turkey moved within one game of ending their long World Cup absence after Ferdi Kadioglu’s second-half goal secured a 1-0 win over Romania in their playoff semi-final following a moment of brilliance from Arda Guler.
In a high-stakes encounter at Besiktas Stadium, the deadlock was broken in the 53rd minute when the Real Madrid midfielder Guler produced a superb defence-splitting pass to pick out Kadioglu, who controlled and finished calmly to give the hosts the lead.
That proved decisive in a tight contest between two sides seeking a return to the World Cup for the first time since 2002. Turkey grew in confidence after going ahead and came close to doubling their advantage shortly afterwards, with Juventus’s Kenan Yildiz cutting in from the left and striking the crossbar with a fine curling effort.
Romania, who had kept the hosts at bay in a cautious first half, pushed forward in search of an equaliser but were unable to break through as Turkey held firm to see out the victory.