Germany, Netherlands, Croatia and Austria Qualify for Euro 2020
Germany, Netherlands, Croatia and Austria all sealed their progression to Euro 2020
Germany and Netherlands sealed their places at Euro 2020 on Saturday evening. The Group C rivals sealed their place and the Europe-wide finals with a game to spare.
Germany put in a composed performance at Borussia-Park easing past Belarus 4-0 thanks to goals from Matthias Ginter, Leon Goretzka and two well-taken goals in the second-half from Toni Kroos. Manuel Neuer pulled off a penalty save to deny Ihar Stasevich, in what was Die Mannschaft’s sixth victory from seven qualifying games.
Whilst the Netherlands qualified automatically at the expense of Northern Ireland following a 0-0 draw in Belfast. The complexion of the contest could have been different had Northern Ireland captain not fired his penalty over the bar with the game thirty-two minutes old.
However a composed second-half performance, which saw Ronald Koeman’s side enjoy the vast majority of possession was enough for the Dutch to book their place at the European Championships for the first time since 2012.
Over in Group E, Croatia had to battle back from a goal down to also reach the finals, following a 3-1 win against Slovakia. Teenage striker Róbert Boženík put the visitors into a shock lead, however, Croatia roared back with three goals in the second half from Nikola Vlašić, Bruno Petković and Ivan Perišić.
Bayern Munich defender David Alaba opened the scoring for Austria who qualified for a second consecutive European Championship’s following a routine 2-0 victory over North Macedonia. A goal early in the second half from right-back Stefan Lainer settled the contest for Franco Foda’s side.