What to look out for in Euro 2024 qualifying
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Portugal (above) play Slovakia and Luxembourg in their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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PARIS – The road to Germany resumes this week as Euro 2024 qualifying kicks back into action with key games for the continent’s heavyweights. Here are some of the highlights with two rounds of matches spread over six days from Thursday to next Tuesday:
A new coach for Italy
Reigning European champions Italy have a new coach after Roberto Mancini’s resignation, with Luciano Spalletti hired as his replacement.
Mancini resigned in mid-August, saying his decision had “nothing to do” with a possible move to Saudi Arabia.
Two weeks later, he was named as the new Saudi Arabia coach
Spalletti, who left Napoli after leading them to the Serie A title last season, takes over a team who are third in qualifying Group C, with three points from two games.
Italy go to Skopje on Saturday to face North Macedonia, the team who knocked them out in a World Cup qualifying play-off in 2022.
They then host Ukraine in Milan in a potentially vital encounter.
Pressure on Spain coach
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente will hope to turn the focus back to football, after he faced criticism and apologised for applauding a controversial speech by the country’s federation president Luis Rubiales in August.
Rubiales sparked worldwide outrage when he forcibly kissed Jennifer Hermoso
He provoked further ire with a defiant speech at an emergency meeting in which he refused to resign, despite mounting pressure and instead railed against “false feminism”, as de la Fuente applauded.
La Roja began Euro qualifying in stuttering fashion and lost to Scotland in March. However, they won the Uefa Nations League in June, beating Croatia on penalties in the final.
They will now be expected to beat Georgia in Tbilisi and Cyprus in Granada, and de la Fuente could hand a debut to 16-year-old Barcelona starlet Lamine Yamal.
Saudi-based contingent
Moving to the Saudi Pro League does not appear to have jeopardised the international prospects of European stars.
Cristiano Ronaldo continues to be called up by Portugal at the age of 38, despite having joined Al-Nassr
He has been joined in Roberto Martinez’s latest Portuguese squad by two new arrivals to the Saudi league in Ruben Neves and Otavio.
Cristiano Ronaldo continues to be called up by Portugal at the age of 38.
PHOTO: AFP
“We will see what state the players coming from the Saudi league are in,” Martinez said.
“It is a different situation, but that doesn’t mean it has to be negative. We need to adapt to these new circumstances in football without making a big deal out of it.”
Jordan Henderson is in the England squad despite joining Al-Ettifaq,
Portugal flying
Portugal are one of four teams with a maximum 12 points from four games, along with Scotland, France and England.
But the Euro 2016 winners are the only ones among that quartet to have two qualifying matches in September and they can close in on securing a spot at the Finals in Germany.
Martinez’s team face Slovakia in Bratislava and Luxembourg in Algarve in Group J.
Two wins would leave them on the brink of qualification, given that the top two progress from a group also containing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Could Kazakhstan qualify?
Expanding the Euros to 24 teams offers a greater chance for some of the continent’s lesser lights to qualify and Kazakhstan have emerged as surprise contenders to do just that.
The vast nation of over 19 million people joined Uefa in 2002. But they have never qualified for a Euro or World Cup, and have never really come close – they failed to win a game in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.
However, three straight wins in Group H, including at home to Denmark and away to Northern Ireland, have propelled them up to second place.
They are behind only Finland, whom they host on Thursday in Astana before then hosting Northern Ireland.
Two more victories and the dream really will be alive for a team ranked 104th in the world and whose players are almost all based domestically. AFP
