Wales lost out to Croatia in the Euro 2024 qualifying round, while Greece held onto France’s spot.
Ante Budimir’s header two minutes before halftime gave Croatia a 1-0 victory that advanced them to Euro 2024.
On Tuesday, Croatia secured the last automatic qualifying spot for Euro 2024, while Wales had to settle for a play-off spot and France had to rally for a draw in Greece.
Croatia, who were semi-finalists at the World Cup a year ago, knew that a victory over Armenia in Zagreb would guarantee their spot in the European Championship in Germany the following year. However, a loss would have given Wales the opportunity to pass them and take second place in Group D.
In the end, Croatia won 1-0 thanks to a header from Ante Budimir two minutes before halftime, sending them through, while Wales could only draw 1-1 in Cardiff against Turkey, who had already qualified.
Croatia became the 21st and final automatic qualifier for the 24-team tournament in June and July of next year, despite their losses to Wales and Turkey in October casting doubt on their chances of automatic qualification.
Veteran captain Luka Modric told UEFA.com, “We deserve to be at the Euro and we have a lot of time now to prepare for what awaits us there.”
Wales’ chances of qualifying for a third straight Euro will now be determined by the play-offs in March of next year.
They will play Finland, Ukraine, or Iceland in the play-off semi-finals, depending on the outcome of this Thursday’s draw.
If that were to happen, there would be a final match against Poland or Estonia, with three play-off qualifying spots up for grabs.
They qualified for the World Cup last year by defeating Ukraine in a play-off.
Neco Williams gave Rob Page’s team the lead early on in the game, and they would need to defeat Turkey on Tuesday in order to have a chance of passing Croatia. But Yusuf Yazici’s penalty in the 70th minute forced a draw for Turkey.
“We must perform at that caliber of level. We’ll be alright if we follow through on that when we get back together in March,” Page urged.
French rejected the late victor.
France drew 2-2 with Greece in Athens, meaning they were unable to complete Group B with a perfect record.
Late in the first half, France took the lead thanks to a goal from Randal Kolo Muani, with Kylian Mbappe not in the starting lineup.
Not long after the interval, Fotis Ioannidis gave Greece the lead, and Captain Tasos Bakasetas quickly restored parity.
Nevertheless, Youssouf Fofana’s forceful goal tied the score for France once more, and Kingsley Coman’s deflected cutback appeared to have crossed the goal line at the last second before spinning back onto the post and out.
But without goal-line technology to assist them, the on-field officials missed it.
This pertains to the global scale. Naturally, there was no qualification on the line, but there was a chance that there was, French coach Didier Deschamps told broadcaster TF1.
It is obviously incoherent to have a ground without goal-line technology, but the officials have to put up with it, he said, adding that the VAR official could not award a goal if he was “only 99 percent sure” the ball had gone in.
Dutch scored six.
Greece, the 2004 Euro champions, can still advance through the play-offs even though they are not guaranteed a spot.
Before the Netherlands defeated Gibraltar 6-0 in Faro, Portugal, they had already qualified from the same group.
Feyenoord’s Calvin Stengs scored a hat-trick, while Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo, Mats Wieffer, and Teun Koopmeiners also scored goals.
Prior to their match in Bucharest, Romania and Switzerland had already advanced from Group I. The home team won 1-0 because of a goal from Denis Alibec in the second half.
Belarus defeated Kosovo 1-0, while Israel, who qualified for the playoffs, triumphed 2-0 in Andorra in the same group.
December 2 in Hamburg will see the final draw for Euro 2024.
Teams qualified for Euro 2024: Austria, Belgium, England, Germany as hosts,
