Let me add my two cents here.
Long ago when I was doing my type rating for the B-707, on one of the sim sessions the following took place.
According to the instructor, who had 15000 hrs on type, the sim flew like the real thing. And so were the engines. When you had to go to a certain power (N) setting, you had to move the throttle levers accordingly and at the right setting, all four of them were out of line with each other, always, and not a little bit. No autothrottle then. This was all good and well thil final approach came.
At flaps 15 at 2000 ft on the localiser, glide alive and gear down. power adjustment. On the glide, flaps 25, power adjustment because I always was above glide there. It took me some time to master the trade to be at the right settings and speed and be on the glide at flaps 25. Now picture this.
At one particular session I thought I had it all set up nicely and, as flaps 25 came, I was above glide again. But, instaed of adjusting the throttles again, in an instinct move, I side slipped the beast. It said whoooffee, and there I was, on glide on loc on speed, perfect. except for the instructor who behind me jumped from his seat and yelled where the hell did you pick up that trick.
After landing I explained to him that I picked this up when i was 14 when I flew gliders which at that time did not have flaps, nor spoilers nor speed brakes. So you always came in to land a tad high, (too low was no option), and then side slipped it in.
The instructor agreed that it would work in real life but advised me very strongly not to pull this off on my check ride. Which i did not cause by then I had mastered the trade.
Now, many years later I read an article in AOPA magazine, written by one of their regular columnists, Capt. Barry Schiff.
In that article he described the same trick, honestly, and he did it regularly. I forgot what he was flying at the time but is was either L-1011 or 747.
So, yes. You can side slip a swept wing airliner.
As for the C-172. No need to side slip. With full flaps, "hanging on the prop", you land on the threshold and stop on the threshold.
And then the Piper Cub. Aahh, those were the days. Came in to land on the grass strip, throttle idel, full flaps, flew through a thermal on final which gave you zero sink rate for 5 seconds, and then side slip it in, full flaps no problem.
But the coolest thing with the Cub was coming in on a high final, throttle back, switch off the engine, pull the nose up so the prop stops windmilling, full flaps and side slip it in. Which was nice.