The Netherlands, which won against Ireland (1-0), Romania, which won against Israel (2-1), and Switzerland, despite being kept at bay by Kosovo (1-1), secured the second-to-last Saturday Matchday, their participation in the EM 2024 qualification.
The Dutch punched their ticket to the competition scheduled in Germany, narrowly winning in Amsterdam and securing second place (15 points) in Group B behind France (21 points), who achieved the biggest victory in their history (14-0) at the expense of Gibraltar.
Hoffenheim center forward Wout Weghorst scored the winning goal in the 12th minute for the Oranje, winners of the 1988 competition, who then defended their lack of success despite some dangerous breaks from their opponents.
Until then, Ronald Koeman’s men had won five of their seven games and only lost in the double confrontation against the French team.
The Dutch continue to feature in several failed European campaigns and have not reached the quarter-finals since 2008. They even failed to qualify for Euro 2016 in France. In their last continental meeting, the Batavians lost 2-0 to the Czech Republic in the round of 16.
However, they enjoyed a promising performance at the 2022 World Cup, reaching the quarter-finals before losing on penalties to eventual champions Argentina.
In Group I, Romania and Switzerland performed well, as expected. With 19 and 17 points respectively, the two nations are assured of placing in the first two places before the last day.
The Swiss only needed a draw to qualify if Israel didn’t win against Romania. This was achieved thanks to a goal from Ruben Vargas (45+2), while Kosovo equalized in the 82nd minute through Muhamet Hyseni.
In Hungary, where the evening’s other crucial encounter took place, George Puscas and Ianis Hagi enabled Romania to beat Israel, who had scored the first goal early in the game through Eran Zahavi.
The Romanians, who failed to qualify for the last European Championship in 2021, will therefore take part in this competition in Germany for the sixth time next year. Switzerland, for its part, reached the quarterfinals two years ago.
The Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland are added to the list of Euro 2024 qualifiers, which already includes Germany (host country), Albania, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain and the Turkey belong.
Two thirds of the 24 qualifiers are now known
Two thirds of the 24 players qualified for the Euro 2024 (June 14th to July 14th in Germany) have now been confirmed after the games on the penultimate day of qualification were played on Saturday:
Qualifiers (16 of 24)
– Germany (host country, automatically qualified)
– Albania
-England
– Austria
– Belgium
– Denmark
– Scotland
– Spain
– France
– Hungary
– *The Netherlands
-Portugal
– *Romania
– Slovakia
– *Swiss
– Türkiye
*Qualified this Saturday evening
Editor’s Note: The top two in each of the ten groups qualify. The final three places will be awarded in play-offs to be played on March 21 and 26, 2024 by qualified teams based on their performances during the 2023 Nations League.