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France, Portugal, Belgium qualify for Euro 2024

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Published in Soccer
Friday, 13 October 2023 15:30

France's Kylian Mbappé rediscovered his touch in spectacular fashion as he grabbed a double to lead his side to a 2-1 away win against an injury-ravaged Netherlands and early qualification for Euro 2024 on Friday.

The World Cup runners-up, who will be joined in the June 14-July 14 tournament in Germany by Portugal and Belgium as one of the first three teams to qualify, kept a perfect record in Group B with six wins.

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Portugal have also won all their matches in Group J after Goncalo Ramos's goal and a double by Cristiano Ronaldo earned them a 3-2 home victory against Slovakia in Group J.

Belgium went through in Group F with a 3-2 win away to Austria, who would themselves have qualified with a victory, as Dodi Lukébakio scored twice before Romelu Lukaku wrapped up the points after the break.

At the Johan Cruijff Arena, France were comfortable for more than 80 minutes, even if a couple of mistakes by goalkeeper Mike Maignan could have cost them dearly.

Mbappé, who left the training camp for a day for personal reasons this week, volleyed home in the seventh minute from Jonathan Clauss's perfect cross before pointing to the sky with both hands.

It came as a relief for Mbappé, who had not scored in his last four competitive outings.

"I'm not one to worry, and especially not about Kylian. He showed today there was nothing to worry about," said France coach Didier Deschamps.

"When he's like this obviously France have more chances to win."

Les Bleus allowed the hosts to gain a bit of confidence before the interval but Mbappé made sure there would be no comeback eight minutes into the second half.

The 24-year-old, who has had an inconsistent start to the season with Paris Saint-Germain, collected a subtle layoff from Adrien Rabiot before curling a sublime shot into the far top corner from the edge of the box for his 42nd international goal.

It took him past France great Michel Platini into fourth place on the national team's all-time top scorers list behind Olivier Giroud (54) Thierry Henry (51) and Antoine Griezmann (44).

Portugal, meanwhile, qualified for their eighth successive European Championship after seeing off a Slovakia fight back in Porto.

"The best way to prepare for European Championship is to try to win games," Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said following the match. "Now we have a list of 23 for the European Championship and that creates a competitive and very healthy environment.

"For us, that's what it's about, it's giving the players the opportunity to show that they can be on the list for the European Championship. Individually our team has superlative talent. For a coach it's a difficult task to use all that talent, but I think in the last seven games we managed to demonstrate all this attitude. it is a step-by-step process and I believe we are on a good path."

With his two goals, Ronaldo moved on to a world-record extending 125 at international level and also became the sixth man in history to score 100 goals in 3 different decades, joining Lionel Messi, Romário, Pelé, Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo Di Stéfano.

"Cristiano is in a good moment of form, he is playing a lot of minutes and scoring a lot of goals with his club," Martinez added.

"In the national team he has a lot of experience, he is a stimulus and a reference for the youngsters. We are all doing the best we can. It's not an individual game, it's a collective game."

ESPN's Adriana Garcia contributed to this report.

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