Russia qualified for Euro 2016, their fourth straight appearance in the finals, while Slovakia are to play in the tournament for the first time as an independent nation.
Russia qualified for next year’s tournament in France with a 2-0 win over Montenegro in Moscow on Monday, securing second place in Group G behind group winners Austria. Slovakia defeated Luxembourg 4-2 to finish second to Spain in Group C, guaranteeing their first finals’ appearance since they played as a member of Czechoslovakia in 1992.
Ukraine, Slovenia and Sweden will have to try to qualify through the playoffs.
Photo: AFP
The top two teams from the nine groups qualify automatically. The best third-placed team also advances, while the other eight meet in playoffs.
Hungary and Turkey are fighting for the final automatic spot as a third-placed team. Turkey can qualify by beating Iceland if Kazakhstan defeat Latvia.
England wrapped up their qualification campaign with a 3-0 win in Lithuania, finishing with the best record in qualifying with 10 straight wins.
Slovakia’s historic qualification for Euro 2016 came thanks to a 4-2 win in Luxembourg, which secured the team second place in Group C.
Slovakia had not scored in three games, but ended the drought in a six-minute span in the first half with goals by Marek Hamsik, Adam Nemec and Robert Mak.
Luxembourg made it interesting with second-half goals by Mario Mutsch and Lars Gerson, but Hamsik sealed Slovakia’s victory in stoppage-time at the Josy Barthel Stadium in Luxembourg.
Spain, who had already qualified in advance, finished qualifying with a 1-0 win in Ukraine, who have to advance through the playoffs.
Ukraine played well and had a series of scoring chances against Spain in Kiev, but they were foiled by a remarkable performance by Spain goalkeeper David de Gea.
“Ukraine played well, but David de Gea was brilliant too,” Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. “Ukraine [have] a personality that not a lot of sides have and I wish them all the best in the playoffs.”
Spain, the defending European champions, finished with 27 points from 10 matches, while Slovakia ended with 22 points and Ukraine had 19.
England travel to France without a single blemish in their Group E qualification campaign.
Goals from Ross Barkley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, either side of goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis’ own-goal, sealed a 3-0 win in Vilnius.
The victory meant that Roy Hodgson’s side became only the sixth team ever to advance to the finals with a 100 percent record still intact.
“To get 10 wins out of 10 is never easy in these qualifying groups, so we’ve got to be satisfied with it and take a bit of pride in it,” England manager Hodgson said.
Elsewhere, second-placed Switzerland beat Estonia 1-0 after an own-goal by defender Ragnar Klavan in fourth minute of second-half stoppage-time.
That meant Switzerland finished with 21 points, nine points adrift of England, but five ahead of third-placed Slovenia.
Slovenia face a playoff after ending their campaign with a 2-0 away win in San Marino after second-half goals from Botjan Cesar and substitute Nejc Pecnik.
In Group G, Russia qualified with a 2-0 win over Montenegro and are to make their fourth consecutive appearance at the European championships.
Veteran defender Oleg Kuzmin and striker Alexander Kokorin scored the goals in the space of five first-half minutes to ensure Russia the second automatic qualifying place in the group behind Austria, who had already qualified.
Qualification caps a dramatic turnaround under new coach Leonid Slutsky, who took charge of the team in August with the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts struggling to qualify. They have won all four of their games following Slutsky’s appointment.
“We coped with the task in front of us. Today’s game was fairly difficult because the last match is tricky,” Slutsky said. “You can’t let yourself relax for a second.”
Austria completed their unbeaten qualifying campaign with a straightforward 3-0 win over Liechtenstein, while Sweden beat Moldova 2-0 to finish third in the group and enter next month’s playoffs.
Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his eighth goal of the qualifying campaign in the 24th minute, before Erkan Zengin doubled the lead three minutes after halftime.
Sweden needed a setback by Russia to finish second in the group. They finished with 18 points, two fewer than Russia and 10 behind Austria.
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