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Roundup of the penultimate round of qualifers for UEFA Euro 2024.
Whilst some qualification spots have already been sorted, several teams continued to battle to secure their places at the main tournament and avoid a tense final matchweek of fixtures.
Now here is a roundup of all the action across groups A-J, with all five British-basd nations amongst those in action.
Group A
First half goals from Yamal, Mikel Oyarzabal and Joselu saw Spain win 3-1 away to Cyprus to stay top of Group A.
Second half goals from Scott McTominay and Lawrence Shankland saw Scotland fight back twice to draw 2-2 away to Georgia, who had twice led through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s eventual brace.
Group B
Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick plus braces from Olivier Giroud and Kingsley Coman saw Group B winners, France hammr Gibraltar 14-0, as Ethan Santos’ own-goal opened the scoring with Marcus Thuram, Warren Zaire-Emery and Adrien Rabiot amongst others on the scoresheet.
Wout Weghorst’s 11th minute winner saw Netherlands scrape past Republic of Ireland in Amsterdam to go second in their group, which put their qualifying fate in their own hands heading into the final round of fixtures.
Group C
Enrico Pepe’s own-goal and Harry Kane’s close-range strike saw already-qualified England beat Malta 2-0 at Wembley Stadium.
Federico Chiesa struck twice as Italy moved up to second with a 5-2 victory at home to North Macedonia, with Matteo Darmian, Giacomo Raspadori and Stephan El Shaarawy also having netted for the hosts, whilst Jani Atansasov scored a brace for the visitors.
Group D
First half goals from Lovro Majer and Andrej Kramaric saw Croatia claim a 2-0 away win in Latvia to move up to second in the group.
Wales’ qualification dreams took a huge blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Armenia who were eliminated from contention, as Nair Tiknizyan’s own-goal saw them fight back to snatch a point after Lucas Zelarayan had put the hosts into a fifth-minute lead.
Group E
Albania secured qualification with a 1-1 draw away to Moldova as Sokol Cikalleshi’s penalty was cancelled out by Vladislav Baboglo’s equaliser for the hosts.
Tomas Soucek cancelled out Jakub Piotrowski’s goal to rescue second-placed Czech Republic a 1-1 draw away to Poland, which in-turn ended the Polish’s hopes of automatic qualification.
Group F
Konrad Laimer and Philipp Lienhart scored first half goals to move already-qualified Austria top of Group F with a 2-0 win away at Estonia.
Emin Mahmudov’s brace and Renat Dadashov’s sixth minute goal saw Azerbaijan claim a surprise 3-0 home victory over Sweden.
Group G
Aleks Petov’s 97th minute own-goal saw Hungary snatch a 2-2 draw away to Bulgaria to move two points clear at the top of the group, with the visitors having led through Martin Adam before Spas Delev and Kiril Despodov handed the hosts a comeback lead.
Edvin Kuc and Stevan Jovetic both scored for Montenegro in a 2-0 home win over Lithuania, which kept the hosts’ qualifying dreams alive.
Group H
Thomas Delaney’s 54th minute goal saw Denmark beat Slovenia 2-1 to secure qualification and top the group, after Joakim Mæhle’s goal was cancelled out by Erik Janza’s equaliser.
Islam Chesnokov’s brace and Abay Aymbetov’s penalty saw Kazakhstan beat San Marino 3-1 to keep their qualification ambitions alive,
Joel Pohjanpalo, Daniel Hakans, Teemu Pukki and Robin Lod all netted as Finland thrashed Northern Ireland 4-0 in a dead rubber match in Helsinki.
Group I
Comeback goals from George Pucas and Ianis Hagi saw Romania come from behind to end Israel’s qualification ambitions with a 2-1 away win, with the Romanians now top of Group I.
A pair of 1-1 draws against Israel then Kosovo saw Switzerland slip to second in the group but also advance to the main tournament.
Denis Laptev struck a 83rd minute winner as Belarus beat Andorra in a clash between the group’s two bottom-placed teams.
Group J
Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Cancelo scored as already-qualified Portugal claimed a 2-0 away win against Liechtenstein.
Lukas Haraslin’s early second-half brace fired Slovakia to qualification with a 4-2 win over Iceland at home, with Juraj Kucka and Ondrej Duda having turned the tie around for them into a half time lead after Orri Oskarsson had handed the Icelandic visitors an early lead.
Gerson Rodrigues struck twice as Luxembourg thrashed Bosnia & Herzegovina 4-1 at home to stay third in the group.
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