Netherlands' Euro 2024 Qualifiers Recap: Virgil van Dijk Maintains Team's Pursuit

Virgil van Dijk scored a stoppage-time penalty to give the Netherlands a crucial 1-0 win in Greece to keep alive their hopes of Euro 2024 qualification.

Following last week’s defeat in Amsterdam by France, the Group B leaders, who secured their own place at the finals, the Dutch were in need of a positive result in the battle for the runners-up spot. After Wout Weghorst saw his first-half penalty saved, Greece looked to have done enough to keep themselves second in the table.

However, deep into added time, Van Dijk, the Dutch captain, converted from the spot after a foul on Denzel Dumfries was followed by a lengthy VAR review. Guy Poyet, the Greece manager, was shown a red card for his protests towards the end of the match. The Netherlands moved second in the table and have a game in hand on Greece, who finish their group campaign at home to France in November.

The Republic of Ireland, whose hopes of qualifying automatically for the finals were already over, won 4-0 in Gibraltar. Evan Ferguson, the Brighton forward, broke the deadlock in the eighth minute, with Celtic’s Mikey Johnston adding another before half-time. Matt Doherty and Callum Robinson completed a comfortable win.

In Group F, Austria secured their place at Euro 2024 with a 1-0 win away to Azerbaijan thanks to a second-half penalty from Marcel Sabitzer. Austria had Guido Burgstaller sent off late on.

Belgium’s game against Sweden was abandoned at half-time after two people were shot dead in Brussels. The score was 1-1 at the time. Viktor Gyökeres gave Sweden a 15th-minute lead, but Romelu Lukaku brought Belgium level just after the half-hour mark.

Portugal, the Group J leaders, swept to a 5-0 win away to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes. Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United midfielder, added a third, with João Cancelo and João Félix also on target before the break.

Slovakia kept themselves in a strong position to secure the runners-up spot with a 1-0 win in Luxembourg courtesy of David Duris’s goal with 13 minutes left. Iceland beat Liechtenstein 4-0 in Reykjavik, where Gylfi Sigurdsson scored twice.