(Paris) Austria secured its qualification for Euro-2024 football on Monday by beating Azerbaijan 1-0 in Baku, a victory which guarantees it one of the first two places in Group F during a day mourned by a fatal attack in Brussels.
The match between Belgium, already qualified, and Sweden at the King Baudouin stadium was definitively stopped after the shooting targeting two Swedish supporters shortly before kick-off. The two teams were tied 1-1 after the first period.
The match was interrupted, the Swedish players not wishing to resume the game when they learned of the tragedy, according to the French-speaking channel RTBF.
PHOTO GEERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Swedish Football Association also reported on X that Belgian police had asked fans “to stay inside the stadium for safety reasons.”
Elsewhere on the field, Austria, which had been showered by Belgium in the group clash on Friday in Vienna, ensured its presence in the next Euro, thanks to a penalty goal scored by Borussia Dortmund midfielder Marcel Sabitzer ( 48e). Tural Bayramov missed a great opportunity to equalize at the very end of the match.
This victory gives coach Ralf Rangnick’s Austria a third participation in a row in the continental competition.
The end of the match was shocked with three warnings – one to the Azerbaijani Sheidaev (90 +3) and two to the Austrians Guido Burgstaller (90 +2) and Sabitzer (90 +3) – distributed in two minutes during added time. Burgstaller was then sent off for a second yellow card (90 +4).
Van Dijk revives the Netherlands
In group B, where only France ensured qualification after its victory in the Netherlands on Friday, Greece, which faced the latter at home, missed the opportunity to eliminate a direct competitor for the Euro by conceding a logical defeat (0-1). Hellenistic goalkeeper Odysséas Vlachodimos delayed the deadline by stopping a penalty from Weghorst (28e). But its defense, which displayed surprising feverishness, was again at fault at the very end of the match. The Benfica goalkeeper was unable to do anything against the Oranje’s second penalty taken forcefully by captain Virgil van Dijk (90 +3). With this success, the Dutch are relaunching and ejecting their opponents from the 2e place for the best specific goal difference (12 points each).
In this same group, Ireland did not exert its talent to beat the modest Gibraltar (4-0) in Faro (Portugal), but remains glued to 4e place with a slim hope of a play-off (6 points).
Portugal, already qualified in Group J, enjoyed fireworks in Bosnia (5-0) with a new double from the indefatigable Cristiano Ronaldo. At 38, the five-time Ballon d’Or scored his 126 and 127e goals in 203 matches for the Seleçao which now has 24 points in the standings. Edin Dzeko’s teammates have undoubtedly said goodbye to the Euro. The second qualifying place will be played out between Slovakia and Luxembourg who faced each other on Monday evening (1-0). By winning in the Grand Duchy, the Slovaks (16 points) are taking a big step, but with two final matches still to be played in mid-November, everything remains open for Luxembourg (11 points).
The last match of the group saw Iceland’s unsurprising victory against Liechtenstein (4-0). The Principality team, which scores very little (only one goal in eight games), missed a great opportunity to score, with Sandro Wieser missing two penalties in quick succession.