Croatia overcame some nerves and a stubborn Armenia team to win 1-0 and secure the last automatic qualifying spot for next year\u2019s European Championship. The Croats needed a win to guarantee qualification along with Group D winner Turkey. But it was tense in Zagreb until midfielder Ante Budimir headed in Borna Sosa\u2019s cross in the 43rd minute. The celebrations were tinged with relief for 38-year-old midfielder Luka Modric and a Croatia team that had 23 attempts on goal. A slip-up would have given Wales hope if it beat Turkey in Cardiff, but coach Rob Page\u2019s team drew 1-1. Neco Williams put Wales ahead early before attacking midfielder Yusuf Yazici equalised with a penalty in the 70th.<\/p>\n
The top two finishers from each of the 10 groups advance, while host Germany is automatically qualified. Wales now hopes to be one of the three teams qualifying via the playoffs in March with 12 teams involved. Elsewhere, France\u2019s perfect record in qualifying came to an end when it drew 2-2 at Greece in Athens. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 hit the crossbar in the final seconds after coming off the bench for World Cup runner-up France. After conceding a record 14 goals to France, tiny Gibraltar lost 6-0 at home to the already-qualified Netherlands. Forward Calvin Stengs scored a hat trick, while midfielders Mats Wieffer and Teun Koopmeiners each scored before striker Cody Gapko completed the scoring.<\/p>\n
Gibraltar finished qualifying with 41 goals conceded in eight games and none scored. In comparison, two-time European champion France netted 29 goals and allowed three. Group I winner Romania beat visiting Switzerland 1-0 in a match with nothing at stake since both had already qualified to Euro 2024. Center forward Denis Alibec scored the only goal early in the second half. In the other Group I matches, third-place Israel won 2-0 at Andorra thanks to an own goal and a late effort from midfielder Gadi Kinda to finish three points ahead of Belarus, which won 1-0 at Kosovo courtesy of forward Dmitri Antilevski\u2019s effort late in the first half.<\/p>\n
QUALIFIED TEAMS<\/strong><\/p>\n Along with Germany, the qualified nations are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. The draw for Euro 2024 will be held on Dec. 2.<\/p>\n PLAYOFF PICTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n Three teams out of 12 hopefuls will advance. The semifinals are on March 21 and the finals take place five days later. The playoff draw is next Thursday. Here is how the three final routes to Germany look: Path A: Robert Lewandowski\u2019s Poland vs. Estonia; Wales vs. either Finland or Ukraine or Iceland. Path B: Israel vs Ukraine or Iceland; Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Finland or Ukraine. Path C: Kazakhstan faces Greece with the winner taking on either Georgia or Luxembourg.<\/p>\n FADING FORCE<\/strong><\/p>\n Germany lost 2-0 to Austria in a friendly to leave the tournament host in turmoil yet again and with less than seven months until the June 14-July 14 competition begins. Germany has won just two of its last 10 games and conceded 22 goals in that time. Coach Julian Nagelsmann was hired in September to replace the fired Hansi Flick and won his first game but is winless in three since. Midfielder Marcel Sabitzer gave Austria the lead in the 29th minute and, after Germany forward Leroy San\u00e9 was sent off for shoving Philipp Mwene to the ground, Christoph Baumgartner finished in style with a lob in the 73rd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Croatia overcame some nerves and a stubborn Armenia team to win 1-0 and secure the last automatic qualifying spot for\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":12430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[867,3660,3659,923,3661],"class_list":["post-12429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer","tag-armenia","tag-croatia","tag-euro-2024","tag-germany","tag-wales"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}