France took a giant step towards reaching the European Football Cup “Euro 2024” scheduled for next summer in Germany, by defeating its guest, the Republic of Ireland, 2-0, Thursday, achieving its fifth victory in 5 matches since the start of the qualifiers.
France thus scored the full mark with 15 points, far ahead of its rival the Netherlands (6 points), which in turn beat Greece.
At the “Parc de Princes” stadium of Paris Saint-Germain, the French national team continued its march towards the finals with an expected victory over Ireland 2-0, to continue its perfect start so far, by winning all its matches and also scoring 11 goals, while not conceding any goal.
Aurelien Choameni (19) and Marcus Thuram (48) scored the two goals.
France started the match strongly, and Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot quickly fired a powerful, creeping shot that was saved by the Irish goalkeeper after 3 minutes.
And the “roosters” succeeded in opening the scoring when the ball reached Kylian Mbappe on the outskirts of the area, so he passed it to Tswamini, who curled it out of the reach of the Irish goalkeeper (19), scoring his third goal in his 26th international match.
⚽️ Tchwamini puts France ahead with a very impressive goal#European _ Nations _ Qualifiers #EuroQualifiers pic.twitter.com/kGDRugIxcz
– beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) September 7, 2023
Veteran Milan striker Olivier Giroud, the best scorer in the history of the French national team, suffered an ankle injury, so he did not complete the match and left in the 24th minute, to be replaced by Italian Inter striker Marcus Thuram.
Mbappe thought he added the second goal for his country, but it was canceled due to Thuram’s offside, who passed the ball to him (39).
At the beginning of the second half, Thuram added the second goal with a powerful shot into the roof of the net (48), opening his international goals in his tenth match.
Marcus Thuram doubles the score for France#European _ Nations _ Qualifiers #EuroQualifiers pic.twitter.com/jlFSgqz4IK
– beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) September 7, 2023
Osman Dembele hit a powerful ball after a dribbling break that was blocked by the left post (72).
Thuram missed a golden opportunity when he received a perfect cross ball a few meters from the goal, but he headed the ball outside the three woods at the end of the match.
“It is a great honor for me, especially that I scored it at the Parc des Princes in front of my family,” Thuram said of his first international goal.
“We have not mathematically decided to qualify yet, but we are on the right track,” he added.
An easy win for the Netherlands
In the same group, the Netherlands achieved an easy 3-0 victory over Greece, taking turns scoring Martin de Roon (17), Cody Gakbo (31) and Foot Vighorst (39) in a match in which Italian right-back Denzel Damfris starred with two assists for the second and third goals.
The Netherlands rose to second place with 6 points, ahead of Greece, which played more matches, on goal difference.
In Group E, the Czech Republic failed to move away from the lead, drawing with runner-up Albania at home 1-1.
The Czech Republic has 8 points, one point ahead of Albania, while the Polish national team was the biggest winner in this round by defeating the Faroe Islands with a double from Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski (73 penalties and 83).
The Polish team raised its tally to 6 points.
Finland retained the top spot in Group H by defeating Kazakhstan 1-0, while its rivals Denmark and Slovenia continued to put pressure on them by beating San Marino and Northern Ireland 4-0 and 4-2, respectively.
Finland has 12 points compared to 10 for Denmark and Slovenia.
Hungary took the lead in Group G by defeating its main rival, Serbia, in the last round, 2-1.
Hungary now has 10 points, compared to 7 for Serbia.
