Bosnia fights back to draw with Sweden as Dzeko bids farewell

The emotionally charged evening was marked above all by the farewell of Edin Dzeko, the Bosnia and Herzegovina captain and the country’s all-time leading goalscorer. It also saw Sergej Barbarez’s side show character to recover in the closing stages and claim a point.

The defining moment came in the 63rd minute, when Dzeko received a standing ovation from a packed Bilino Polje before handing over the captain’s armband and leaving the pitch. Haris Tabakovic replaced him.

The substitution brought an official end to Dzeko’s remarkable international career. He made 152 appearances for Bosnia and Herzegovina and scored 73 goals.

Before his farewell, the match had already produced plenty of drama, including two disallowed goals.

Barbarez handed a start in goal to young Salko Hamzic, who made several impressive early saves, including against Sweden’s star striker Viktor Gyökeres.

Sweden thought they had taken the lead in the 18th minute through Gyökeres, but the goal was ruled out for hand play. Bosnia then had a goal disallowed in first-half stoppage time. Dzeko found the net, but the goal was ruled out after the ball had marginally crossed the goal line during the build-up before Kerim Alajbegovic’s cross.

Sweden finally broke the deadlock in the 61st minute after a misunderstanding between Bosnia defenders Nikola Katic and Armin Basic. Gyökeres capitalised on the error and fired past Hamzic to make it 1-0.

Bosnia responded by pushing forward, and their pressure paid off in the 81st minute. Alajbegovic sent a cross from the right that caused confusion in the Swedish defence before the ball ended up in the net without touching another player.

The 1-1 draw followed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s draw in Warsaw and a major victory over Romania in Bucharest, keeping the team unbeaten at the start of its Nations League campaign.

Barbarez’s side will return to Bilino Polje on Monday, when they host Poland.