Sports Desk, Nov 17 (EFE) – Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 128th international goal in Portugal’s 0-2 win over Liechtenstein on Thursday when Hungary salvaged a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria to secure their qualification for Euro 2024.
Slovakia also qualified on the same evening after a 4-2 win over Iceland, with the two teams joining already-qualified England. Austria, Spain, Turkey, Scotland, France, Belgium, and Portugal, and hosts Germany.
Martin Adam scored early for Hungary, but Bulgaria leveled through Spas Delev before both teams were reduced to 10 men after Bulgaria’s Valentin Antov and Hungary’s Milos Kerkez saw second yellow cards.
Kiril Despodov put Bulgaria ahead in the second half, but Hungary, who only needed a point for a guaranteed place in the top two of Group G, managed the draw after the stoppage time own goal of Alex Petkov.
Slovakia won convincingly against Iceland to clinch a place in Germany, with two goals from Lukas Haraslin and one each from Juraj Kucka and Ondrej Duda.
Ronaldo scored his 10th goal in the qualifying competition soon after the break to put Portugal ahead against Liechtenstein and join Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku as the top scorer in the qualifying round.
Joao Cancelo added the second goal for the already-qualified former champions 15 minutes later.
Lamine Yamal scored again in Spain’s 1-3 win over Cyprus, which helped the side maintain their place at the top of Group A.
The 16-year-old has already become the youngest scorer in Euro qualifying history and now has two goals in three appearances for his country.
Mikel Oyarzabal and Joselu also scored after Yama’s opener to put Spain 3-0 ahead in the first half before Cyprus pulled one back through Kostas Pileas.
Azerbaijan humbled Sweden 3-0 despite being reduced to 10 men in the early second half.
Twenty teams will qualify for the finals in Germany through the group stage, while another three will join the hosts through the play-offs. EFE
am
