Euro 2024 qualifying: Cristiano Ronaldo moves on as Dutchman feasts in Greece

Another matchday, another team guaranteed a place at Euro 2024 in Germany.

Here are three takeaways from Monday’s European qualifiers, with another set of games on Tuesday before this month’s international window closes and players return to their clubs.

Netherlands win in Greece, Netherlands almost advance

After losing at home to Mbappe and France last week, orange All three points are needed in Athens on Monday to regain second place ahead of the hosts.

The Netherlands, who beat Greece 3-0 in Eindhoven last month, finally got what they wanted – and we mean closure. The first 88 minutes were scoreless, including a missed penalty by Dutch forward Wouter Weghorst and Greek forward Vangelis Pavlidis knocking down Denzel Dumfries in the penalty area. After a lengthy video review, the referee awarded a second penalty and captain Virgil van Dijk stepped up to fire the all-important winner from 12 yards out from goalkeeper Odysseus Vlahodimos. .

With two games remaining against already-eliminated Gibraltar and the Republic of Ireland, head coach Ronald Koeman’s orange Now ready to compete in next summer’s tournament.Greece only has one game left and may have to pull off an upset Blues There is a realistic hope of securing one of the two direct spots in the main event from Group B.

Austria officially announced

It has been clear for some time that Austria and Belgium would be the two automatic qualifyers from Group E. But while the Belgians sealed the deal in Friday’s head-to-head clash, the Austrians had to wait for the finals in the October window.

On the face of it, traveling to Azerbaijan and winning appears to be an easy task for a team that ranks nearly 100 places above the hosts in FIFA’s latest world rankings.

In fact, Monday’s game was closer than most expected. The visitors took the lead in Baku when substitute Marcel Sabitzer took a penalty kick in the 49th minute, but they were forced to struggle all the way to win 1-0.

No matter what happened, they came in. This is Austria’s fourth appearance at the European Cup since 2008 and their second consecutive appearance in the European Cup after reaching the knockout stages last time, and this is their best performance to date. Ralf Rangnick’s team must believe they can do better at the German border next summer.

Cristiano Ronaldo can’t stop scoring goals for Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo may no longer be playing club football on the continent, but the living legend – who will be 39 when the European Championships kick off next June – is still plying his trade for his country Score goals at an astonishing pace.

The Portugal captain scored two goals on Friday to lead his team to a seventh consecutive qualifying win, ensuring he will feature in Germany. Ronaldo scored twice again on Monday to help his team beat Bosnia 5-0 and secure a place in the championship. His penalty opened the door for Portugal and Ronaldo doubled the visitors’ advantage before half-time, scoring his 127th career international goal.

Joao Cancelo, Joao Felix and Bruno Fernandez completed the scoring, all in the first half. The lopsided victory kept Portugal perfect in Group J. Ronaldo played in 7 of these games and scored 9 goals.

Slovakia, trailing Portugal, moved firmly into second place with a 1-0 victory over Portugal in Luxembourg, with substitute David Duris scoring the winning goal. The two results put Bosnia and Herzegovina in fifth place among the six teams in Group J. But by winning their group in the UEFA Nations League, Bosnia secured a backdoor path: a playoff spot in March will determine the final three invitees to Euro 2024.

Doug McIntyre is a football reporter for Fox Sports.Before joining Fox Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer for ESPN and Yahoo Sports, where he reported USA The men’s and women’s national teams have participated in multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @Author: Doug McIntyre.

---

---