In qualifying for Euro 2024, defending champions Italy cruised to a 4-0 victory against Malta on Saturday. Meanwhile, Denmark enhanced their position and hurt the aspirations of outsiders Kazakhstan.
Giacomo Bonaventura scored his first goal for Italy with a curling shot, while Domenico Berardi added another impressive goal of his own to increase Italy’s lead in Bari.
Davide Frattesi finished off a pleasant evening for Luciano Spalletti’s side, who held control of second place in Group C ahead of next week’s meeting with England. Berardi scored once more in the second half of the match.
“That match is where we will really see how much potential we have,” Spalletti said in an interview with the broadcasting organisation RAI.
A head-to-head matchup between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium has Italy within three points of England despite the fact that Italy still has a game in hand.
“It will definitely be emotional, I have amazing memories from that stadium,” said Berardi, who had a role in Italy’s victory against England in the shootout final of the Euro 2020 tournament.
“We’ll go there trying to do what we did today, play our own game and look to win.”
Following Ukraine’s victory over North Macedonia in Prague by a score of 2-0, Italy is now tied with Ukraine.
After thirty minutes of play, Georgiy Sudakov gave Ukraine the lead, and substitute Oleksandr Karavaiev clinched the victory deep into stoppage time. This victory comes in advance of Ukraine’s trip to Malta the following week.
Robert Skov scored twice to lead Denmark to victory in their rematch against Kazakhstan, which they had previously lost in a shocking fashion back in March.
The Danes, who advanced to the semifinals of Euro 2020 thanks to Jonas Wind’s goal, were well on their way to victory until Skov struck a quick-fire double on either side of halftime.
Yan Vorogovskiy scored for Kazakhstan to bring them within one, but they are now four points behind the leaders in Group H.
“We have a lot to be thankful for, starting with a victory here at home in a European qualifying match. “It hasn’t been a walk in the park in this group,” the coach of Denmark’s national team, Kasper Hjulmand, said the broadcasting company TV2.
“It was a really significant match that we were playing at home, and we had no choice but to come out on top. We were under a lot of strain, but we were able to pull off the result we needed.
Slovenia is propelled forward by Sesko.
Benjamin Sesko scored two goals in Slovenia’s 3-0 victory over Finland in Ljubljana, which took place on Sunday.
The RB Leipzig forward scored another with a clinical finish, bringing Sesko’s total to eight goals in his previous 11 appearances for his country’s national team. Sesko’s first goal came from the penalty spot, and his second goal brought him to the total.
A late goal scored by defender Erik Janza put Slovenia ahead of Denmark at the top of the standings in terms of goal difference. The meeting between the two nations takes place on November 17 in Copenhagen.
Next week, Slovenia will play on the road against Northern Ireland, and it is almost certain that Denmark will win their match against San Marino. San Marino has lost all but one of their 82 prior Euro qualifiers.
The 3-0 victory over San Marino was only Northern Ireland’s second victory in their last seven matches.
After defeating Serbia in their own stadium by a score of 2-1, Hungary assumed leadership of Group G.
The first goal scored by Hungary’s Barnabas Varga was equalised by the defence of the opposing team, Serbia’s Strahinja Pavlovic. However, Hungary went on to win the match thanks to Roland Sallai’s incredible volley from 25 yards out that won the game.
Hungary is now in first place, three points ahead of Serbia, with a game in hand. On Tuesday, a match that is extremely important for both teams will take place in Belgrade when Montenegro travels there.