France broke records with a 14-0 win. Dutch, Swiss, and Romanian are eligible, Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick in France’s record-breaking 14-0 thrashing of 10-man Gibraltar as the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Romania booked their places at Euro 2024 on Saturday.
Les Bleus set a new record margin of victory in European qualifying and a national record in Nice.
Own goals from Ethan Santos and Marcus Thuram opened the floodgates before 17-year-old Warren Zaire Emery scored.
It was Zaire-Emery’s last contribution as the PSG midfielder was forced off with an ankle injury but a red card for Santos after just 18 minutes allowed the World Cup finalists to run on.
Mbappe’s penalty made it 4-0 and Jonathan Claus, Kingsley Coman, and Youssef Fofana scored before half-time.
France broke records with a 14-0 win. Dutch, Swiss, and Romanian are eligible
Adrien Rabiot, Coman again, and Ousmane Dembele kept the score going before Mbappe hit his hat-trick twice in style.
The France captain lobbed Dale Colling from just inside the Gibraltar half to register his 300th career goal aged just 24.
Olivier Giroud then came off the bench to score the last two goals and ensure the history books were rewritten.
But the scoreline will raise fresh questions about the need for such clashes between giants and minnows in a crowded fixture calendar.
Meanwhile, just one goal was enough to ensure the Dutch joined France in qualifying from Group ‘B’ with a 1-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland.
Wout Weghorst’s powerful drive separated the sides in Amsterdam in what is likely to be Irish boss Stephen Kenny’s last competitive game in charge. Romania reached only their second major tournament since 2008, ending Israel’s chances of automatic qualification with a 2-1 win.
Despite being forced to play the home fixture in Hungary due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel went ahead after just two minutes through Iran Zahavi.
But Romania quickly hit back to equalize through George Piskas to secure their place in Germany, thanks to Gheorghe Hagi’s son Ianis Hagi, who inspired Romania’s famous run to the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals.
Switzerland also qualified despite a 1-1 draw at home to Kosovo.
Romania is now in pole position to win Group ‘I’ with a draw at home to Switzerland on Tuesday enough to secure the top spot.
Wales’ hopes of reaching a third successive European Championship suffered a major blow when they were held to a 1-1 draw against Armenia.
Rob Page’s men started the day with automatic qualification in their hands.
But Wales were soon behind in Yerevan to a Lucas Zillarin strike from outside the box.
An own goal from Nir Tiknezian drew the visitors level just before half-time, but Wales failed to find a winner which left them needing to edge past Croatia.
The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists moved into second place in Group ‘D’ thanks to a 2-0 win in Latvia as Lovro Majer and Andrej Kramaric struck inside the first 16 minutes.
Wales must beat already-qualified Turkey in Cardiff on Tuesday and hope Croatia fail to beat Armenia at home.
