Portugal ended their Euro 2024 qualification campaign on Sunday with a 100% record, beating Iceland by a score of 2-0. Serbia had already secured their spot at the finals next year in Germany. Romelu Lukaku netted four goals for Belgium.
Bruno Fernandes, Ricardo Horta and Cristiano Ronaldo did not score for Roberto Martinez’s Portugal. The team finished with 10 victories from 10 games in the Group J.
Ronaldo, who is 38 years old, could play his last major championship in the company of the 2016 champions.
After a 2-1 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina at Zenica, Slovakia was eight points back of Portugal on the second place in qualifying.
Luxembourg will now head to the play-offs after a convincing group stage showing. They won 1-0 in Leichtenstein, closing an excellent performance with five more points.
After four failed attempts to qualify for the final, Serbia was able to reach the event on Sunday with a draw of 2-2 against Bulgaria.
After Hungary, the Serbs finished second behind them in Group G. Hungary beat Montenegro 3-1 at Budapest to end any hope of Montenegro progressing.
Dragan Stojkovic, Serbia’s coach said: “They showed that they didn’t give up and believed in themselves.”
It’s an important day for Serbian Football. Serbia has finally made it to the European Championship.
We are happy and satisfied.” “We are satisfied and happy.”
Georgi Rusev, a Bulgarian substitute, equalized the score in the 59th minute after centre-back Milos Veljkovic had put Serbia in front in the 17th.
Srdjan Bábic equalised with eight minutes left to go to make Serbia the 17th country to qualify for Euro 2024.
Montenegro had to beat Hungary to qualify for Germany, but they also needed Serbia to lose.
Dominik Szoboszlai, a Liverpool midfielder who plays for the Reds in the Premier League, scored two goals within three minutes in the second period. Zsolt Nagy completed the victory in the extra time.
Lukaku is on fire
Lukaku netted four goals in Belgium’s 5-0 win over Azerbaijan.
Lukaku, the Roma striker who scored all his goals in the first half of this game in Brussels, has now reached 83 international goals.
In the 17th, he converted a Jeremy Doku corner. Seven minutes later Eddy Israfilov received a second yellow for his actions.
Lukaku scored shortly after and headed Wout Faes’ delivery for a hat trick.
Lois Openda replaced him at the halftime break after he scored four goals within 20 minutes.
In the second half, the Belgians slowed down their pace. However, Leandro trossard scored a 5th goal in the 90th from another Doku pass.
Both Austria and Belgium qualified with one match to spare after finishing top in Group F.
Sweden’s miserable campaign ended with a 2-0 victory over Estonia, the team in their group. This was the last game of the season, and they had failed to qualify for an European Championship since 1996.
– Gavi injured –
Gavi, the Barcelona star who played for Barcelona in recent years, suffered a serious knee injury during Spain’s victory over Georgia. The 3-1 win secured Spain first place in Group A ahead of Scotland.
In the first-half, the 19-year old was tackled behind, and his knee buckled as he put weight on it. He then left the field in tears.
Luis de la Fuente, Spain’s coach said: “This is an extremely difficult and tough moment.”
“For me, his friends, the Spanish football federation” Above all, for him and his club.
“We’re destroyed. “Football is a high-risk sport, and that’s the ugly side of our game.”
Spain defeated a determined Georgia with goals from Robin Le Normand, Ferran Torres, and an own-goal by Luka Lochoshvili. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Napoli had brought the score to 1-1 in the early stages.
Scotland, who had already qualified for the finals, needed only to win over Norway and then hope that Spain would slip to take first place. Instead they were held in a 3-3 tie at Hampden Park.
