Poland, Germany qualify for the main draw in UEFA Euro 2020 tournament
Poland and Russia booked their spots in the upcoming UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. While the former beat North Macedonia 2-0, Russia battered Cyprus 5-0.
- SportFit
- 3 min read
Things took an interesting turn as Poland and Russia booked their spots in the upcoming UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. While the former beat North Macedonia 2-0, Russia battered Cyprus with a scoreline of 5-0 in a match that saw a red card being given to left-back Konstantinos Laifis, 27 minutes into the game. Also, 2014 World Cup-winners Germany and the Netherlands, beat Estonia and Belarus in their respective matches that bought them one step closer to qualify for the Euro 2020 tournament.
A strong performance by Russia
Stanislav Cherchesov's, Russia, who reached the World Cup quarter-finals on home soil a year ago, had the target of avoiding a defeat in Nicosia to pursue Belgium in qualifying stages from Group I.
Valencia winger, Denis Cheryshev, scored a goal in the 9th minute for his team, before Magomed Ozdoev, who scored a marvelous long-range goal on against Scotland, scored two goals midway through the first half.
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Even before Cyprus could chalk out a plan to fight back, their hopes were dashed in the 28th minute when Kostas Laifis was sent off for a rough tackle against Russian defender, Sergei Petrov.
Striker, Artem Dzyuba, scored his 3rd goal in two games, late into the second half, before Aleksandr Golovin and Cheryshev's goal secured a huge win for the Russian team.
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In the meantime, Russia will try to claim the top spot from Belgium in a group I, Euro 2020 qualifying match to be played at the Krestovsky Stadium on November 16.
Poland: Perched at the top of the group G
Poland's win steered them 3 points of the Austrian team in Group G, with Slovenia and North Macedonia witnessing a gap of 8 points between them and the Polish team.
The UEFA Euro tournament will be played for a duration of one month from June 12-July 12 in the year 2020. It will be hosted across 12 different cities with the first match being played at Rome's, Stadio Olimpico in and the semi-final and final being played at England's prestigious national stadium, Wembley.
According to the set rules, all the participating teams are required to go through a group stage qualification process before being granted a spot in the main draw for the tournament. The qualifying matches started in the month of March 2019 and will be over in March 2020.
(With inputs from agencies)