Portugal won all of their games in qualifying for Euro 2024 by beating Iceland 2-0 on Sunday. This came after Serbia qualified for next year’s finals in Germany and Romelu Lukaku scored four goals for Belgium.
Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta scored the goals for Roberto Martinez’s Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo did not score, and Portugal finished with 10 wins from 10 games in Group J.
It’s possible that Ronaldo, who is 38 years old, will not play in another big event after this one. They won it all in 2016.
Slovakia beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 in Zenica to finish eighth, eight points behind Portugal in second place and qualify for the next round.
After finishing strong in the group stage with a 1-0 win in Leichtenstein, Luxembourg, who will go to the play-offs, was still five points behind.
With a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria earlier on Sunday, Serbia made it to the main event for the first time as an independent country, after failing four times before.
They came in second place in Group G, behind Hungary. However, Hungary beat Montenegro 3-1 in Budapest, ending any dreams they had of moving on.
“The players didn’t give up and had faith in themselves,” said Dragan Stojkovic, the coach of Serbia.
“Serbian football has a big day today.” Serbia has finally made it to the European Championship.
“I’m proud of my boys; they fought until the end and kept believing.” We’re pleased and content.
In the 17th minute, centre back Milos Veljkovic put Serbia ahead. In the 59th minute, replacement Georgi Rusev tied the game for Bulgaria.
After ten minutes, Kiril Despodov put the guests ahead, but Srdjan Babic tied the game eight minutes from time, making Serbia the seventeenth team to make it to Euro 2024.
For Montenegro to have a chance of going to Germany, they needed Serbia to lose and they also needed to beat Hungary, who had a very easy qualification process.
Slobodan Rubezic put Montenegro ahead after 36 minutes, but Dominik Szoboszlai, a defender for Liverpool, scored two goals in three minutes to tie the game. Zsolt Nagy sealed the win in extra time.
Lukaku is on fire
Picture: AFP
Lukaku scored four goals as Belgium beat Azerbaijan 5-0 to win the tournament.
Lukaku scored all three of his goals in a great first half in Brussels, bringing his record number of goals scored for Belgium to 83.
After Eddy Israfilov was given a second yellow card seven minutes later, the Azeris had a lot of work to do. He scored the first goal in the 17th minute by finishing a Jeremy Doku cross.
Soon after, Lukaku scored, and then he headed in Wout Faes’s cross to make it a hat-trick.
During the first half, he scored four goals in twenty minutes before Lois Openda came on to replace him.
The Belgians slowed down in the second half, but Leandro Trossard scored the fifth goal in the 90th minute with help from Doku again.
Belgium won Group F, one point ahead of Austria. Both teams finished their qualifying games with two games to spare.
Sweden finished a terrible season by beating Estonia 2-0 in the other game in the group. This was the first time since 1996 that Sweden did not make it to a European Championship.
Gavi was hurt. Picture: AFP
Gavi, a star player for Barcelona, had to leave the game against Georgia because of a bad knee injury. Spain’s 3-1 win put them ahead of Scotland in Group A.
The 19-year-old was hit from behind in the first half, which hurt his knee since he was putting weight on it. He then left the pitch in tears.
“This is a very tough and tough time,” Luis de la Fuente, the coach of Spain, said.
He said, “For the Spanish Football Federation, for me, and for his friends.” But most of all for him and his team.
“We are ruined. This is the bad thing about football: it’s a risky sport.
Robin Le Normand, Ferran Torres, and an own goal by Luka Lochoshvili helped Spain beat a tough Georgia team. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Napoli tied the game at 1-1 early on.
Scotland was already qualified, so all they had to do to get first place was beat Norway and hope that Spain lost. However, they were held to an exciting 3-3 draw at Hampden Park.