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It's the first time since December 1988 that the boys in green have occupied such a lofty position and a far cry from disappointment and frustrations of more recent qualifying campaigns.

And although David Healy - now firmly in pole position in the tournament scoring charts - grabbed both goals again one should dismiss any notion of this being a one-man team.

Tonight every player was a star, tonight every player fought for the shirt, tonight every player was a hero.

Sweden opened the scoring on 26 minutes through Johan Elmander with a great shot and turn inside the area which gave Maik Taylor no chance.

It was a goal scored somewhat against the run of play but within four minutes Northern Ireland were back on level terms - and how!

Hero Healy, so often the purveyor of excellence in front of goal for our wee country, scored arguably his greatest ever goal.

The ball found its way to him on the edge of the area and with apparently little options open he swivelled, created space and smashed an unstoppable effort past Andreas Isaksson high into the net.

That was how it stayed until the 59th minute when Healy did it again!

This time Damien Johnson floated over a low cross from the right which the diminutive Leeds United striker met to flick across the body of a defender into the left corner of the goal.

The goal sparked amazing scenes of celebration at a packed Windsor Park, immediately invoking memories of the by now legendary victories over England and Spain.

Don't bet against this latest triumph joining those games in Northern Ireland footballing folklore.

Northern Ireland: Taylor, Duff, Evans, McCann, Craigan, Davis, Johnson, Healy, Feeney, Brunt, Hughes subs Carroll, Webb, Sproule, Lafferty, Quinn, Elliott, Jones

Sweden: Isaksson, Nilsson, Mellberg, Hansson, Edman, Andersson, Alexandersson, Svensson, Ljungberg, Ibrahimovic, Elmander subs Shaaban, von Schiebrugge, Majstorovic, Bakircioglu, Kallstrom, Rosenberg, Wilhelmsson

Referee: Eric Braamhaar (Netherlands)