France returned from Dublin with its second victory in Group Two of the European Cup 2024 qualifiers at the expense of Ireland 3-0, while the Netherlands compensated for its harsh opening defeat by defeating the modest Gibraltar national team 3-0.
France began its qualifying campaign with a crushing 4-0 victory over the Netherlands, including a brace for its new captain Kylian Mbappe, top scorer of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, who was absent on Monday in a match that was the hero of Benjamin Pavard, who scored the only goal early in the second half.
The confrontation between the two teams always brings back the controversy that accompanied their meeting in the qualifying supplement to the 2010 World Cup when Thierry Henry touched the ball with his hand in the second leg before passing it to William Gallas, who scored the equalizing goal for France 1-1 in the first extra half (France won the first leg 1-0 Thus qualified for the finals.
The Irish resentment increased after that as a result of their exit from the final price of the 2016 European Cup at the hands of the “roosters” with a 1-2 loss after they were the first to score in the first minutes before Antoine Griezmann responded with a brace at the start of the second half, which was completed by Robbie Keane and his companions with ten players.
Despite the great French advantage, coach Didier Deschamps' men were unable to actually threaten the Irish goal until the 38th minute, when Griezmann was close to opening the scoring with a header after a cross from Pavard, but his attempt passed by the left post.
The Irish were active late in the first half and threatened the French goal with successive set pieces, but without reaching Mike Mignan's goal, so the first half ended in a goalless draw.
But the French struck at the beginning of the second half with a wonderful goal by Pavard, who killed the ball after a wrong pass from Joshua Cullen, before he fired a missile from the outskirts of the area, to bounce off the post and into the net (51).
The French were close to the second with a long shot from Adrien Rabiot, but goalkeeper Gavin Bazuno excelled in defending his own goal (76), before the homeowners woke up in the final minutes without success, only to fall in their first test in this group after Minyan shone in blocking Colin's header in the time killer.
"It's always difficult with this aggressive Ireland team," Deschamps said. "It's never easy to play two games in three days, but the group (the team) is strong, and they handle it well. Today's game was worse than Friday's but the opponent wasn't him." "Same. Six points is the perfect result, given the small time difference between these two matches. Congratulations to the group, even if there is still a long way to go."

In Rotterdam, the Netherlands mourned the repetition of its sweeping victories over Gibraltar in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers (7-0 and 6-0), but secured the first three points with a 3-0 victory, giving coach Ronald Koeman his first victory in his new, old mission, which he regained after the veteran’s departure. Louis van Gaal after the Qatar World Cup.
Given the modest level of the opponent, the Netherlands was not affected by the many absences in its ranks, whether due to injury or the virus, from which the heart of defense, Matthijs de Ligt, recovered and started, and Cody Khakpo, who participated in the second half.
Memphis Depay opened the scoring for the landlords in the 23rd minute with a header after a cross from Denzel Dumfries, raising his score to 44 goals in 88 matches in the colors of "orange", so he became 6 goals away from the historical top scorer Robin van Persie.
The goal of the Spanish striker, Atletico Madrid, separated the two teams during the first half, before Nathan Ake added the second immediately after the half-time break with a header after another cross from Dumfries (50).
The Netherlands' task became easier after the expulsion of Liam Walker (51), so that Akih added his second personal goal from a long shot (82), with which Koeman's men secured the first points, to become the same distance from Greece, which won in the first round over Gibraltar 3-0 as well.
And in the seventh, and in the third match between them since their independence from each other in 2006, Serbia renewed its supremacy over its host, Montenegro, and achieved its third victory over it, with a score of 2-0, thanks to the double of Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic (78 and 90 + 6).
Vlahovic also contributed to the first victory by scoring the second goal against Lithuania (2-0).
The two teams faced off for the first time since separation in 2018 in the third level of the European Nations League, and Serbia emerged victorious 2-0 away from home and 2-1 home.
In the same group, Hungary started its qualifiers with a 3-0 victory over its host Bulgaria.
Balint Vichai (7), Dominic Suboslay (26) and Martin Adam (39) scored.
On the other hand, Bulgaria suffered its second loss after the first, against its guest, Montenegro, 0-1.
And in the sixth, Austria turned the table on its guest, Estonia, when it beat it 2-1.
Austria won a penalty kick in the 17th minute, which was missed by Freiburg striker Michael Grigoric.
Rauno Sabinen gave Estonia the lead in the 25th minute, but the hosts rose up in the second half and scored two goals through Florian Kaints (68) and Grigoric (88).
Austria was at the top of the group with six points, with a difference of three against Belgium, which was absent from this round, and Sweden, which regained its balance after its humiliating loss against the “Red Devils” by three clean ones on Thursday, by defeating its guest Azerbaijan with five clean goals, which were scored by Emil Forsberg (38) and Azerbaijani defender Bahloul. Mostafa Zadeh (65 by mistake against his country), Victor Guikeres (79), Jesper Carlos (88) and Anthony Elanga (89).
And in the fifth, Poland followed the example of Sweden and regained its balance after losing to the Czech Republic 1-3 in the first round, with a difficult victory over its guest, Albania, 1-0, scored by Karol Sviderski (41).
In the same group, Moldova tied the Czech Republic negatively.
And the Czech Republic strengthened its lead by four points, one point against Poland and two points against Moldova, while Albania remained unbalanced in last place with the Faroe Islands.