Wednesday, September 6, 2023 – 1:32 PM
ABU DHABI, 6 September / WAM / The qualifiers for the upcoming European Nations Cup (Euro 2024) will resume their activities tomorrow, Thursday, through the fifth round, which will witness 23 matches over 3 days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), followed by the sixth round on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays of the tournament. next week.
Last March and June witnessed the first four rounds of the qualifiers, which were characterized by strong competition and an early struggle for the World Cup qualification cards.
The new round of qualifiers is receiving great interest with the return of Spain, Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands to participate in the qualifiers, after these teams missed the two rounds of last June due to their preoccupation with participating in the final rounds (semi-finals and finals) in the third edition of the European Nations League.
These four teams are looking forward, with their return to participating in the qualifiers, to improve their position in the various groups in the qualifiers through the fifth and sixth rounds, especially with the emergence of other teams that left good imprints in the past rounds of the qualifiers and doubled their ambition to compete strongly to qualify for the finals, which Germany will host in the middle of the year. next.
The qualifiers will witness 10 groups, from which the first and second places in each group will qualify, and the German national team will join them, which will participate in the finals without going through the qualifiers.
The remaining three seats in the finals will be decided through the European play-off scheduled for March 24, in which 12 teams will participate according to their results in the previous edition of the Nations League.
And after winning the Nations League title last June, the Spanish national team will be required to return strongly to the qualifiers for Euro 2024, especially since its score has frozen at 3 points from only two matches it has played so far in Group A.
The team will start its return to the qualifiers with an exciting match the day after tomorrow, Friday, at the stadium of its Georgian counterpart, who is second in Group A, which the Scottish team leads with a full score (12 points from 4 consecutive victories so far) before the Scottish team’s match the day after tomorrow also at the Cyprus Stadium.
The Spanish national team needs to win this match as well as Cyprus in the sixth round next week to strengthen its position in the competition for one of the two qualifying cards from this group for the finals.
In the second group, the situation is not much different for the Dutch national team (3 points from two matches), as the French national team leads the group with 12 points from 4 consecutive victories before its upcoming match tomorrow with Ireland.
The Dutch team begins its return to the qualifiers by facing its Greek counterpart (6 points from 3 matches), who is second in the group, a match in which the Dutch team will have no choice but to win to preserve its good chances of competing to qualify for the finals.
The situation also appears similar for the Italian national team, the European champions, whose score was frozen at 3 points from two matches in Group C. Before its match in North Macedonia, next Saturday.
The England national team also tops the group with a full score (12 points from 4 wins) before its match on Saturday, hosted by the Ukrainian team, which is in second place with 6 points.
The Croatian national team ranks third in Group D, with 4 points from two matches, before its match against its Latvian counterpart on Friday.
The Turkish national team leads the group with 9 points, before its match against Armenia (6 points), the day after tomorrow, Friday, as well.
In the other most important matches of the fifth round, the Portuguese national team will visit its Slovak counterpart in Group X the day after tomorrow, Friday, and the Belgian national team will visit Azerbaijan in Group Six on Saturday.
Dina Omar / Ahmed Zahran
2023-09-06 09:36:31
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