The French national team, known as Les Bleus, achieved a remarkable victory in the European qualifying tournament, setting a new record margin of victory. The match took place in Nice, where Ethan Santos’ own goal and a goal from Marcus Thuram started the scoring spree. The 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery also got on the scoresheet before being forced off the pitch due to an ankle injury. The floodgates truly opened when Santos received a red card just 18 minutes into the game. Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty to make it 4-0, and the goals kept coming with strikes from Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman, and Youssouf Fofana before halftime. The second half saw goals from Adrien Rabiot, Coman again, and Ousmane Dembele. Mbappe sealed his hat-trick with two more goals, including an incredible lob from just inside the Gibraltar half, marking his 300th career goal at the age of only 24. Olivier Giroud came off the bench to add the final two goals, ensuring the history books were re-written. The scoreline raises questions about the necessity of such matches between top teams and underdogs in a crowded fixture calendar. France coach Didier Deschamps expressed his team’s ambition to achieve such a victory. In another Group B match, the Netherlands secured their qualification alongside France with a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland. The only goal of the match came from Wout Weghorst’s powerful shot. Romania also booked their place in the tournament by defeating Israel 2-1. Despite playing in Hungary due to the ongoing conflict, Israel took an early lead through Eran Zahavi. However, Romania quickly equalized through George Puscas and secured the victory with a goal from Ianis Hagi, the son of Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi. Switzerland also qualified, although they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Kosovo. Wales’ hopes of qualifying suffered a blow with a 1-1 draw against Armenia, with Lucas Zelarayan opening the scoring for Armenia and Nair Tiknizyan’s own goal leveling the score for Wales. They now need to win against Turkey and hope for a slip-up from Croatia in their final group match.
France sets new records in 14-0 victory, Dutch, Swiss, and Romania secure spots at Euro 2024
Kylian Mbappe netted three goals in France's historic 14-0 demolition of Gibraltar, despite the latter's numerical disadvantage. The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Romania also secured their spots in Euro 2024 on Saturday.