Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick as France beat Gibraltar 14-0, setting a new record. On Saturday, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Romania all qualified for Euro 2024.
In Nice, Les Bleus won by a bigger spread than any other team in European competition and in French history as a whole.
Before Warren Zaire-Emery scored, Ethan Santos’ own goal and Marcus Thuram’s goal set the stage for a lot of goals.
That was the last thing Zaire-Emery did because the PSG player hurt his ankle and had to leave the game. However, Santos’s red card after only 18 minutes let the World Cup winners run wild.
It was 4-0 after Mbappe’s chance. Before halftime, Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman, and Youssouf Fofana all scored.
Another goal from Coman and one from Ousmane Dembele kept the score level until Mbappe scored twice to complete his hat-trick in style.
The France leader lobbed Dayle Coleing from just inside the Gibraltar half to score his 300th goal, which made him 24 years old.
Then Olivier Giroud came off the bench to score the last two goals and change the course of history.
But the score will make people wonder again if big teams and small teams really need to play each other in such close games when the schedule is already so full.
“We did everything we could to get this score.” “That is what this team wants to do,” France manager Didier Deschamps said.
With a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland, the Dutch joined France as the only teams in Group B to make it to the next round.
In what is likely to be Stephen Kenny’s last competitive game as Irish manager, Wout Weghorst’s strong drive put the game between the two teams in Amsterdam.
The game is what it’s all about in the end. “We knew we needed three points today, at home in front of our own fans, to go straight through,” said Cody Gakpo, a forward for the Netherlands.
“We created a lot of chances, opportunities, but we have to score more goals and have more finesse in the final third.”
Switzerland and Romania are qualified
With a 2-1 win, Romania made it to their second big event since 2008, stopping Israel’s hopes of automatically qualifying.
Because of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Israel had to play a game that should have been played at home in Hungary. Eran Zahavi scored Israel’s first goal after only two minutes.
But Romania quickly tied the game with a goal from George Puscas and sealed their spot in Germany with help from Ianis Hagi, the son of Gheorghe Hagi, who led Romania to the famous run to the World Cup quarterfinals in 1994.
Switzerland also made it, even though Kosovo tied them 1-1 at home.
The Swiss and Romania tied at home on Tuesday, which put Romania in first place and gave them the chance to win Group I.
A 1-1 draw away to Armenia put an end to Wales’ hopes of going to the European Championship for the third year in a row.
The men for Rob Page started the day with guaranteed entry in their own hands.
But Wales was behind right away after Lucas Zelarayan scored from outside the box in Yerevan.
Before halftime, Nair Tiknizyan scored an own goal to tie the game. However, Wales couldn’t find a winner, so they need Croatia to make a mistake.
With a 2-0 win in Latvia, the 2022 World Cup finalists moved into second place in Group D. Lovro Majer and Andrej Kramaric scored goals in the first 16 minutes.
We need Wales to beat Turkey in Cardiff on Tuesday and hope that Croatia doesn’t beat Armenia at home.