In the early morning of March 28, Beijing time, the second round of Euro 2024 qualifiers continued, and today four groups and eight matches were played. After some battles, France beat Ireland 1-0 away, the Netherlands beat Gibraltar 3-0 at home, the Czech Republic drew 0-0 away to Moldova, Poland beat Albania 1-0 at home, Estonia lost 1:2 away to Austria, Sweden beat Azerbaijan 5-0 at home, Serbia beat Montenegro 2-0 away and Hungary beat Bulgaria 3-0 at home.
Group F: Austria, Belgium and Sweden are stronger than the other two teams, so if they want to take the initiative in the qualifying race, they cannot lose against Estonia, Azerbaijan, and Austria almost missed out on Estonia today. The Austrian attack suppressed Estonia after the opening, and in the 16th minute, Austria played a clever combination in the middle, Lemerzer should be oblique, Gregorridge took the ball in the box was tackled by the returning Sinyavski, referee Jogo and blew a penalty, Gregorridge himself took the penalty was blocked by the crossbar. Missed chances were penalized, and just eight minutes later, Estonia had a free-kick on the right side of the front, Estonia crossed consecutive headers from the left side, Zeyov went to the right from the penalty spot, and Sapinen snatched a volley to give Estonia a 1-0 opener.
Dominant but conceded the ball first, then Austria attacked more aggressively, and in the 53rd minute, Gregorridge volleyed hard from the left edge of the penalty area, and the ball almost grazed the outside of the post and flew off the line. In the 67th minute, the Austrian midfielder won the ball in the scramble, Leimer dribbled the ball to the right side diagonally before the arc of the penalty area, Bosch followed up with a slight adjustment of the stop, and shot with his left foot, goalkeeper Hein struggled to save the ball, and Keinz who had just come off the bench grabbed the second drop point on the left side of the penalty area and volleyed, the ball went straight into the bottom right corner of the goal, Austria equalized the score 1:1. In the 87th minute, Austria continued to press forward, Baumgartner picked a cross from the right side of the penalty area, Gregorridge unloaded the ball from the penalty spot, turned and pushed with his left foot, the ball changed and bounced into the net, Austria defeated Estonia 2-1, and won two consecutive victories.
The first round was also a big win, and today it was also a thrilling victory for France. France played away to Ireland today, Kylian Mbappe, Griezmann was in poor form, France was slow to score. Until the 49th minute, Te'o's cross from the left side of the front was cut off by Cullen, but then Cullen's bold cross was reversed by Pavard, who broke the ball and fired further vigorously, and the ball hit the crossbar and bounced into the goal, France broke the deadlock 1-0. At the end of the game, Ireland almost scored a goal on the counterattack, and in the 90th minute, Ireland had a corner kick from the right side, Collins snatched a strong header at the front of the penalty area, the ball went straight to the corner of the goal, and Meignan saved the ball bravely. In the end, France beat Ireland by one goal away to win the second consecutive European preliminary round.
In terms of the standings, after the end of today's four groups, three groups scored exactly the same, with France, Austria and Serbia all leading the way with two consecutive wins. Then Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary and Montenegro behind them are all 2 and 3 on 3 points, and the bottom two in the group are both 0 points. After a crushing first-round defeat to France, the Netherlands temporarily moved up to third place in the group today thanks to a reverse victory from the back line. Sweden, like the Netherlands, lost badly in the first round and then won big today, also in third place.