LONDON:
Portugal completed their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a 100 per cent record by beating Iceland 2-0 on Sunday after Serbia booked their place at next year’s finals in Germany and Romelu Lukaku scored four goals for Belgium .
Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta scored the goals for Roberto Martinez’s Portugal, without Cristiano Ronaldo, to finish with 10 wins from 10 games in Group J.
The 2016 winners will be among the title favorites in what could be 38-year-old Ronaldo’s last major tournament.
Slovakia finished eight points behind Portugal in second place in the qualifiers after a 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica.
Luxembourg, who will qualify for the play-offs, dropped a further five points after ending an impressive group stage with a 1-0 success in Liechtenstein.
Earlier on Sunday, Serbia qualified for the first time as an independent nation, after four previous failures to reach the main event, with a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria.
The Serbs finish second in Group G behind Hungary, who ended Montenegro’s hopes of progressing by beating them 3-1 in Budapest.
“The players showed a mentality of not giving up, believing in themselves,” said Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic.
“It’s a big day for Serbian football. Serbia finally in the European Championship.
“Congratulations to my boys, who fought until the end and believed. We are happy and satisfied.”
Center back Milos Velikovic put Serbia ahead in the 17th minute before substitute Georgi Rousseff equalized for Bulgaria in the 59th.
Ten minutes later Kiril Despodov put the visitors ahead but Srdjan Babic equalized eight minutes later to ensure Serbia became the 17th team to qualify for Euro 2024.
Montenegro needed Serbia to lose to have any hopes of taking their place in Germany, but they also needed a win against the Hungarians who eased impressively through qualifying.
Slobodan Rubezic put Montenegro ahead on 36 minutes but Hungary hit back in the second half with two goals in three minutes from Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai before Zsolt Nagy completed the win in added time.
Lukaku scored four goals as Belgium finished with a 5-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan.
Roma striker Lukaku extended his record international goals for Belgium to 83, with all of his goals coming in a remarkable first half in Brussels.
He opened the scoring in the 17th minute by converting Jeremy Doku’s cross, before Eddy Israfilov was shown a second yellow card seven minutes later to leave the Azerbaijanis with a mountain to climb.
Lukaku fired over shortly after and then headed in Wout Faes’ delivery to complete a hat-trick.
He completed the scoring with four goals in 20 minutes before being replaced by Lois Openda at half-time.
The Belgians eased off the gas in the second period, but Leandro Trossard added a fifth in the 90th minute from another Docu assist.
Belgium finished top of Group F, one point clear of Austria, with both having completed qualification with matches remaining.
Sweden ended a miserable campaign, in which they failed to qualify for the European Championships for the first time since 1996, with a 2-0 win over Estonia in their other group game.
Barcelona star Gavi limped off with a nasty knee injury in Spain’s 3-1 win against Georgia, which secured top spot in Group A above Scotland.
The 19-year-old was tackled from behind in the first half, buckling his weight-bearing knee, before leaving the field in tears.
“This is a very difficult and very difficult moment,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said.
“For the (Spanish football) federation, for me, for his friends, but above all for him and his club.
“We are devastated. Football is a sport of danger and that is the ugly part of our sport.”
Goals from Robin Le Normand and Ferran Torres and an own goal from Luka Lochoshvili helped Spain overcome a spirited Georgia, who leveled at 1-1 early on through Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Already qualified Scotland had to beat Norway and hope Spain slip up to grab top spot but were held to a dramatic 3-3 draw at Hampden Park.
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