Towards the European Championship: Ukraine-England 1-1. Ok Belgium and Sweden

In the afternoon matches of the European Championship qualifiers, the key match was undoubtedly Ukraine-England, from Italy’s group. It ended 1-1: Southgate’s team is no longer with full points, Ukraine rises to 7 points, +3 on the Azzurri who however have two games in hand. In the other matches, however, Belgium (1-0 against Azerbaijan, goal by Ferreira Carrasco) and Sweden (5-0 in Estonia) won, while the match between Andorra and Belarus ended 0-0.

group c

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Guests from Ukraine, Kane and his teammates suffer from the initiatives of Rebrov’s national team at the start of the match. In the 22nd minute Zinchenko broke the deadlock, reaching a curling cross put in by Konoplya. Once behind, England pick up the pace but appear nervous: Bellingham misses two simple passes, Maddison misses the chance of a potential equalizer. Kyle Walker straightened the match in the 41st minute: the City defender found his first goal for England, cutting in from the right to take advantage of Kane’s pinpoint throw. At the start of the second half, Southgate’s team begins to get going: Bellingham wastes a header, Saka hits the crossbar. Not even Rashford’s entry onto the pitch, among the most proactive in the last half hour, allowed the English to return home with 3 points. The match ends 1-1 and the full score dream finally fades away. England, in any case, remains at the top (unbeaten) with 13 points.

group f

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Just over an hour on the pitch for Lukaku, zero minutes for De Ketelaere. Belgium won 1-0 at De Biasi’s Azerbaijan and remained in first place in the group, with 10 points won in 4 matches. With the captain’s armband on his arm, Roma’s new striker doesn’t particularly shine. However, it is he who recovers the ball from which the goal is born: Romelu sacrifices himself on the attacking midfield, then serves Bakayoko who shoots from distance. In the path of the shot is Ferreira Carrasco, who mocks the opposing goalkeeper with a deflection. In addition to the Red Devils, Sweden also wins away (5-0), hosting Estonia in the 6pm match. Coach Andersson chooses Hien (Verona) and Cajuste (Napoli) from the start, but the great protagonist is the former Juventus player Kulusevski, who goes wild in the first half. In the 18th minute he took part in the restart of the 1-0 (Wahlqvist’s ball in the middle, Gyokeres’ goal into an empty net), then he doubled the lead by escaping with a magic spell in the penalty area. Before the break Isak scores the hat-trick with a header, in the final comes the goleada with the former Palermo player Quaison (author of the 4-0, again with a header) and the newly introduced Claesson.

group i

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After the draw in Kosovo last March, Andorra achieved its second useful result in Group I: the home match against Belarus ended with a clean sheet, despite the onslaught of the guests in the final minutes. The team led by Koldo proved to be compact for the entire duration of the match, despite taking some risks due to the uncertainties of goalkeeper Iker Alvarez. The Andorran number one redeems himself in full injury time with two decisive saves: at the final whistle the scoreboard shows the score 0-0, Andorra and Belarus remain respectively last (with 2 points) and third from last (with 4) in the group.