{"id":1004,"date":"2023-11-03T19:43:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T16:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/1004\/france-portugal-belgium-clinch-euro-2024-qualification\/"},"modified":"2023-11-03T19:43:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T16:43:20","slug":"france-portugal-belgium-clinch-euro-2024-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=1004","title":{"rendered":"France, Portugal, Belgium clinch Euro 2024 qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored twice to help France and Portugal secure their place at next year&#8217;s European Championship with a perfect qualifying record, with Belgium also clinching a place in Germany on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The three European powers all needed a win to qualify for the tournament and their star forwards made sure they got it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mbapp\u00e9&#8217;s two goals &#8211; including a long-range goal for the second &#8211; helped secure a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in Amsterdam for a perfect sixth victory in Group B.<\/p>\n<p>Mbapp\u00e9 opened the scoring in the seventh minute by beating Lutsharel Geertruida on a cross from the right by Jonathan Clauss to volley past Brighton goalkeeper Bert Verbruggen, who was making his debut for the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>It was Mbapp\u00e9&#8217;s 41st <a href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/2225\/kane-joins-messi-ronaldo-neymar-international-goal-club\/\">international goal<\/a>, putting him level with French great Michel Platini, despite recent difficulties with Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not the type to worry, and especially not about Kylian,&#8221; France coach Didier Descamps said.  \u201cHe showed today that there is nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it\u2019s like that, France obviously has a better chance of winning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mbapp\u00e9 doubled the lead in the 53rd minute, exchanging passes with Adrien Rabiot at the edge of the Netherlands penalty area before firing a shot over Verbruggen.<\/p>\n<p>Feyenoord midfielder Quilindschy Hartman, making his first full international appearance, made it 2-1 with 10 minutes remaining.  It was the first goal conceded by France during the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Greece moved into second place with 12 points after Giakoumakis and Giorgos Masouras scored a goal a piece to beat Ireland 2-0 in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands remain nine in third place with a game in hand.<\/p>\n<p>The two best teams from each group qualify directly.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring Portugal&#8217;s second goal against Slovakia. <cite>Carlos Rodrigues\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Ronaldo&#8217;s double improved his international goals record to 125 in 202 matches and led Portugal to a 3-2 victory over Slovakia.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo converted from the penalty spot in the 29th minute, sending Slovak goalkeeper Martin D\u00fabravka the wrong way to double the lead to 2-0.<\/p>\n<p>Striker Goncalo Ramos had given the hosts the lead with a header 11 minutes earlier.<\/p>\n<p>After David Hancko pulled one back for Slovakia in the second half, Ronaldo restored a two-goal advantage when a low cross from Bruno Fernandes found him at the far post.<\/p>\n<p>He jumped high in his trademark celebration in front of the roaring Porto fans after his seventh goal in six qualifying matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCristiano is in good form, he plays a lot of minutes and scores a lot of goals with his club,\u201d Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the national team he has a lot of experience, he is a stimulant and a reference for the young people. We all do our best. It&#8217;s not an individual game, it&#8217;s a collective game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stanislav Lobotka scored the second for Slovakia in the 80th.<\/p>\n<p>With three days to go, Portugal have a 100% record after seven consecutive victories with a goal difference of 27-2, the best performance ever achieved in a European qualifying campaign.  Slovakia was the first team to score against Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>Slovakia remain second on 13 points and Luxembourg trail by two in third after holding Iceland to a 1-1 draw in Reykjavik.<\/p>\n<p>Bosnia won 2-0 against pointless Lichtenstein and are fourth of nine with Iceland a further two points behind.<\/p>\n<p>Romelu Lukaku scored again and Dodi Luk\u00e9bakio added two more for Belgium, who had to hang on from 10 down to beat Austria 3-2 in Vienna and secure qualification from Group F.<\/p>\n<p>Lukaku beat goalkeeper Alexander Schlager to make it 3-0 after collecting a precise pass from J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku in the 58th, just three minutes after Lukebakio scored his second.<\/p>\n<p>Lukaku leads the scoring charts in qualifying with nine goals in six games, taking his international tally to 79.<\/p>\n<p>Lukebakio broke down on the right before scoring inside the far post from a tight angel to give the Red Devils the lead in the 12th.  It was the Sevilla striker&#8217;s first international goal.<\/p>\n<p>Konrad Laimer scored for Austria in the 72nd and Belgium then fell to ten six minutes later when midfielder Amadou <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/onana\/\"   title=\"Onana\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Onana<\/a> was sent off for a second booking.  Marcel Sabitzer scored Austria&#8217;s second goal from the penalty spot in the 84th, but the hosts failed to equalize.<\/p>\n<p>Belgium have 16 points from six matches, with Austria three points behind after their first defeat in qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>Sweden, which was inactive on Friday, is third with six points from five games and still has a small chance of overtaking Austria.<\/p>\n<p><em>Associated Press, Reuters and ESPN&#8217;s Adriana Garcia contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored twice to help France and Portugal secure their place at next year&#8217;s European Championship with a perfect qualifying record, with Belgium also clinching a place in Germany on Friday. The three European powers all needed a win to qualify for the tournament and their star forwards made sure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1223,1224,1225,1221,1222,1226],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-belgium","tag-clinch","tag-euro","tag-france","tag-portugal","tag-qualification"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6757,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/6757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}