A moment of brilliance from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the second minute of injury time gave Sweden a 1-0 win over Hungary on Wednesday and propelled them to the top of Group 8.

In the dying moments of a match which Hungary dominated and should have won, the Juventus striker dribbled through the defence and unleashed a fierce shot that found the top left corner of the Hungary goal.

Before the Ibrahimovic strike, Sweden had looked out of sorts and had threatened the home goal only twice, while Hungary had plenty of chances at the other end.

Metz left winger Szabolcs Huszti forced two good saves out of Andreas Isaksson, one in each half, while Panathanaikos striker Sandor Torghelle should have made sure of the match in the second half with two chances. Zoltan Gera also came close twice.

"When you have a world-class player like Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score such a goal, you can always win, even if you did not play well," Sweden coach Lars Lagerback told reporters. "Perhaps a draw would have been the fairest result, but that is football."

Prior to that Sweden's only clear-cut chance was a header from Henrik Larsson in the first half.

The only battle that matters now in Group 8 is that for top spot between Sweden on 21 points and second-placed Croatia, who are a point adrift. The sides meet in Croatia on 8 October.

Squad: 1 Andreas Isaksson - 2 Alexander Östlund, 3 Olof Mellberg,  4 Teddy Lucic, 5 Christoffer Andersson - 6 Tobias Linderoth - 8 Christian Wilhelmsson, 9 Fredrik Ljungberg, 7 Niclas Alexandersson - 10 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (16 Marcus Allbäck 90+2'), 11 Henrik Larsson (17 Mattias Jonson 82').