The current European champions, Italy, were dealt a setback on Saturday when they were held to a 1-1 draw by North Macedonia in a qualifying match for the Euro 2024 tournament. This result dealt a blow to Italy’s chances of advancing out of Group C, where the leaders, England, earned an important point by drawing 1-1 on the road against Ukraine.
With 13 points, England is in first place in the group, followed by Ukraine with seven points. Both Italy and North Macedonia have four points in this competition.
On Tuesday, Italy will compete in their next important qualifying test against Ukraine.
After Roberto Mancini unexpectedly resigned as Italy’s manager, Luciano Spalletti took over for the first time, although his team was unable to perform well against the team who knocked them out of the World Cup in the play-offs in the most recent tournament.
In Skopje, Italy took the lead thanks to Ciro Immobile, but nine minutes later, the home team’s Enis Bardhi scored on a free kick they had been awarded.
In front of around 40,000 of their country’s supporters, the Ukrainian team that was playing against England in Poland walked out onto the field in Wroclow with their national flags draped over their shoulders.
“This is a very difficult spot to come from. After his team’s streak of four consecutive wins in the group came to an end, England manager Gareth Southgate described the event as “a one-of-a-kind occasion” and remarked that the excitement could be felt.
After 26 minutes, Oleksandr Zinchenko gave Ukraine the lead with a thunderous shot that he took after making a sweeping drive across the middle of the field.
However, England responded in the 41st minute when Harry Kane delivered a ball over the top and Kyle Walker slipped the ball home for his first international goal on his 77th appearance for England. This marked Walker’s first time scoring for England in his international career.
After beating Azerbaijan 1-0 while on the road, Belgium moved into a tie for first place in Group F with Austria. Both teams now have 10 points.
Domenico Tedesco, the team’s new manager, has now gone five games without suffering a loss since taking over. Yannick Carrasco scored the game’s lone goal in Baku.
After their 5-0 thrashing of Estonia, Sweden are currently in third place in the group with six points.
After a back-and-forth match that ended in a 2-2 draw, Switzerland is in first place in Group I by a two-point margin over Kosovo, for whom La Liga-based forward Vedat Muriqi scored twice.
Romania and Israel are currently tied for second position in their respective groups after playing to a 1-1 draw. They currently have nine and eight points, respectively, putting them one point apart.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the championship round.
As the tournament’s hosts, Germany is merely participating in exhibition matches, but the country’s national squad is now mired in turmoil, and their woes were compounded by a humiliating 4-1 loss to Japan in Wolfsburg.
In the first half, Japan scored two goals in the final five minutes while the home crowd booed and jeered. Junya Ito and Ayase Ueda scored each side of a goal scored by Leroy Sane in the first half.
Ilkay Gundogan, the captain of Germany, stated categorically that “we are not good enough right now, it’s a completely bitter day — we all need to ask questions of ourselves.”