Austria qualified for the 2016 European championships next summer for only the second time in their history after they defeated Sweden 4-1 in Solna.
Swiss coach and former international midfielder Marcel Koller guided the Austrians to a place in France after their maiden appearance at the final stages in 2008 when they qualified as co-hosts with Switzerland.
Bayern Munich's David Alaba, the youngest player to ever play for Austria at 17 in 2009, scored from the penalty spot after just nine minutes before West German-born Martin Harnik plundered his 12th international goal seven minutes before halftime with a header to give the visitors a cushion.
Veteran Basel striker Marc Janko, 34, then put the icing on the cake and started the early celebrations with Austria's third on 79 minutes before Harnik grabbed his second of the night with two minutes remaining to add insult to injury for the Swedes.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a late consolation goal in vain for the hosts.
The Swedes slipped to third in the group behind Russia, who won 7-0 in Liechtenstein.
Artem Dzyuba led the rout for the Russians with four goals and further strikes came from Fyodor Smolov, Alan Dzagoev and an Aleksandr Kokorin penalty to put them a point clear in second with two games to play.
Also in Group G, an early opener from Stefan Savic and an own goal from Petru Racu gave Montenegro a 2-0 win over Moldova in Chisinau.
Wayne Rooney made history as already-qualified England extended their 100 per cent record in Group E to eight straight wins with a 2-0 victory over Switzerland at Wembley.
Substitute Harry Kane scored a 67th-minute opener before Rooney's 84th-minute penalty took him one clear of Sir Bobby Charlton as England's all-time leading goalscorer on 50 goals.
Third-placed Slovenia made hard work of keeping up the pressure on the Swiss as they edged to a 1-0 win over Estonia in Maribor.
Robert Beric's 63rd-minute effort proved just enough for the Slovenians to reduce the gap to three points on their rivals for the second qualifying berth.
San Marino scored their first away goal for over a decade but it was not enough to prevent a 2-1 loss to Lithuania in Vilnius.
Spain moved closer to booking their place in France next summer as Juan Mata's eighth-minute strike gave them a hard-fought 1-0 win over Macedonia in Skopje.
Their cause was helped by a goalless draw between Slovakia and Ukraine in Zilina which leaves the Spanish two points clear at the top of Group C with the Slovaks maintaining their three-point gap over Mikhail Formenko's men.
AFP