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Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania qualify for Euro 2024, France win 14-0

sportsmole.co.uk, 18 November 2023, 21:43
Netherlands, Switzerland and Romania have all confirmed their places at Euro 2024 on a night that also saw France run out 14-0 winners over 10-man Gibraltar.

Netherlands went into their Group B clash with the Republic of Ireland knowing that a win would seal their spot at next summer's tournament with a game to spare.

Wout Weghorst scored the only goal of the game in Amsterdam to condemn Ireland to a sixth defeat from their eight qualifying matches, while also clinching second place for Ronald Koeman's side by virtue of their superior head-to-head record over Greece.

Netherlands will finish a distant second behind France, though, with the World Cup runners-up making it seven wins from seven in ruthless fashion against Gibraltar.

Les Bleus plundered 14 goals against their visitors in Nice for their biggest-ever win, becoming the first European side to score that many in a single game since Denmark beat Iceland 14-2 in a friendly in 1967.

Gibraltar's night already looked on course to be one to forget by the time they were reduced to 10 men after only 18 minutes, with France already 3-0 ahead at that stage.

Ethan Santos's own goal in the third minute opened the floodgates, and Marcus Thuram and Warren Zaire-Emery quickly added to the score before Santos's own short-lived personal nightmare was compounded when he was sent off before the 20-minute mark.

That red-card challenge saw Zaire-Emery - the youngest debutant for France since 1911 and their second-youngest ever scorer - forced off through injury after 20 minutes, but the goals kept flowing.

Kylian Mbappe helped himself to a hat-trick of both goals and assists, including his 300th career goal, while Kingsley Coman and record-scorer Olivier Giroud both netted braces, the latter capping off the rout with a quickfire brace either side of the 90-minute mark.

Jonathan Clauss, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot and Ousmane Dembele also got on the scoresheet as France reached half time with a 7-0 lead and then refused to take their foot off the pedal after the interval.

In Group I, Romania and Switzerland both stamped their tickets to next summer's tournament, with Romania beating Israel 2-1 in Hungary to move into top spot.

Romania only needed to avoid defeat to qualify, but they made the worst-possible start when Eran Zahavi gave Israel the lead after only two minutes.

However, George Puscas restored parity in the 10th minute, and Ianis Hagi then scored what proved to be the winner in the second half.

Israel's failure to win was also enough to confirm Switzerland's place at Euro 2024 despite them being held to a 1-1 draw at home to Kosovo.

Ruben Vargas had given the hosts the lead two minutes into the second half, and that would have been enough to see them qualify without a helping hand from elsewhere but for Muhamet Hyseni's equaliser eight minutes from time.

Also on Saturday, Wales saw their qualification hopes slip out of their own hands after they drew with Armenia and Croatia beat Latvia, while the other game in Group I saw Belarus beat Andorra.

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