{"id":77235,"date":"2023-11-20T23:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/defending-champs-survive-penalty-scare-as-spot-at-euro-2024-sealed-england-held-by-minnows\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T23:31:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:31:00","slug":"defending-champs-survive-penalty-scare-as-spot-at-euro-2024-sealed-england-held-by-minnows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/defending-champs-survive-penalty-scare-as-spot-at-euro-2024-sealed-england-held-by-minnows\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending champs survive penalty scare as spot at Euro 2024 sealed; England held by minnows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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European champions Italy won the right to defend their title at Euro 2024 after a 0-0 draw on Tuesday (AEDT) with Ukraine in Leverkusen secured qualification for next year\u2019s finals in Germany.<\/p>\n

The final score belied the true nature of the match, with Italy\u2019s high-octane attack and Ukraine\u2019s counterattacking threat creating several chances for both teams.<\/p>\n

Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. Join now and start streaming instantly ><\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Ukraine had a late penalty appeal turned down, despite Italy midfielder Bryan Cristante looking to have made contact with Mykhailo Mudryk\u2019s foot in injury time.<\/p>\n

The result means Italy, who failed to qualify for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups either side of their Euro 2020 triumph, avoid another embarrassing tournament miss.<\/p>\n

Ukraine, forced to take the fixture to Germany due to the ongoing conflict with Russia, can still qualify, but will need to navigate the play-offs in March 2024.<\/p>\n

Italy travelled to Leverkusen knowing they would progress by avoiding defeat, while Ukraine knew only a win would suffice.<\/p>\n

Mudryk was lively down the left for Ukraine and crafted a number of half-chances early, with his side denied by poor finishing.<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s dominance of possession started to tell after half an hour, Federico Chiesa sliding a smooth pass across the face of goal which eluded a desperate Davide Frattesi.<\/p>\n

Italy continued to attack early in the second half but as the game wore on the increasingly nervous Italians sat back, allowing Ukraine more space up front.<\/p>\n

Mudryk was always a threat and appeared to have been brought down in the box after contact from Cristante, but the referee waved his team\u2019s desperate pleas for a spot-kick away.<\/p>\n

<\/amp-img>
Mudryk thought he earned Ukraine a late penalty. (Photo by Lars Baron\/Getty Images)<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

England narrowly avoided an embarrassing defeat against North Macedonia as they wrapped up a place among the top seeds at Euro 2024 with a 1-1 draw in Skopje.<\/p>\n

Gareth Southgate\u2019s side trailed to Enis Bardhi\u2019s first-half strike before Jani Atanasov\u2019s own goal gifted the visitors their second-half equaliser at the Tose Proeski Arena.<\/p>\n

Having finished as Group C winners with six victories and two draws, England will be in the first pot of Euro 2024 seeds alongside Germany, Portugal, France, Spain and Belgium.<\/p>\n

That should increase their chances of landing a favourable group when the draw for next year\u2019s tournament in Germany is made on December 2.<\/p>\n

The initial signs were promising for England as Declan Rice smashed a fierce drive against the post from 20 yards.<\/p>\n

The ineffective Ollie Watkins, deputising for rested England striker Harry Kane, headed wide when he should have hit the target.<\/p>\n

For all their territorial dominance, England were fortunate not to concede a penalty when Harry Maguire stumbled and clearly shoved Elif Elmas.<\/p>\n

Referee Filip Glova waved play on and VAR upheld his decision to North Macedonia\u2019s intense frustration.<\/p>\n

If that was a debatable call, North Macedonia\u2019s luck quickly turned as they benefitted from an equally dubious decision in the 41st minute.<\/p>\n

<\/amp-img>
North Macedonia went ahead after a contentious penalty was awarded. (Photo by Robert ATANASOVSKI \/ AFP)<\/span>Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Rico Lewis jumped to head the ball away from Bojan Miovski, the England left-back\u2019s outstretched arm caught the striker in the head, sending him sprawling in the area.<\/p>\n

It looked like accidental contact by Lewis and a theatrical fall from Miovski, yet Glova awarded a penalty after checking the pitchside monitor.<\/p>\n

Jordan Pickford dived to his left to save Bardhi\u2019s spot-kick, but the Macedonian alertly pounced on the rebound to fire home from close range.<\/p>\n

As Southgate\u2019s frustration mounted, England thought they had equalised two minutes after halftime.<\/p>\n

Jack Grealish bundled in Bukayo Saka\u2019s cross, but the goal was correctly disallowed by VAR for offside against the Manchester City winger.<\/p>\n

Against opponents throwing themselves into tackles with abandon, England had to dig deep before finally getting back on level terms in the 59th minute.<\/p>\n

Kane had just come off the bench seconds earlier when he challenged for Phil Foden\u2019s corner, forcing Atanasov to divert the ball into his own net.<\/p>\n

FULL EURO 2024 QUALIFICATION RESULTS<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/i>North Macedonia 1-1 England<\/p>\n

Czech Republic<\/b> 3-0 Moldova<\/p>\n

Albania 0-0 Faroe Islands<\/p>\n

Ukraine 0-0 Italy<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland<\/b> 2-0 Denmark<\/p>\n

Slovenia <\/b>2-1 Kazakhstan<\/p>\n

San Marino 1-2 Finland<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European champions Italy won the right to defend their title at Euro 2024 after a 0-0 draw on Tuesday (AEDT) with Ukraine in Leverkusen secured qualification for next year\u2019s finals in Germany. The final score belied the true nature of the match, with Italy\u2019s high-octane attack and Ukraine\u2019s counterattacking threat creating several chances for both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[36665,2228,3271,36664,36672,36661,2904,36660,16419,36659,2892,36671,1429,5145,36667,21212,36662,36670,3215,149,726,350,4232,7062,528,12707,2458,196,36663,1415,1427,10749,36673,4776,36675,36669,371,6385,493,36666,32205,5483,3507,36674,2457,2902,4920,36668,3150],"class_list":{"0":"post-77235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-accidental-contact","9":"tag-agence-france-presse","10":"tag-belgium","11":"tag-bryan-cristante","12":"tag-contentious-penalty","13":"tag-counterattacking-threat","14":"tag-czech-republic","15":"tag-debatable-call","16":"tag-defending-champs","17":"tag-desperate-pleas","18":"tag-eastern-europe","19":"tag-embarrassing-tournament-miss","20":"tag-europe","21":"tag-european-champions","22":"tag-european-minnow","23":"tag-federico-chiesa","24":"tag-filip-glova","25":"tag-final-score","26":"tag-first-half-strike","27":"tag-football-news","28":"tag-france","29":"tag-gareth-southgate","30":"tag-germany","31":"tag-graham-arnold","32":"tag-harry-kane","33":"tag-injury-time","34":"tag-italy","35":"tag-jack-grealish","36":"tag-macedonia","37":"tag-manchester-city-football-club","38":"tag-northern-europe","39":"tag-northern-ireland","40":"tag-ongoing-conflict","41":"tag-penalty-appeal","42":"tag-penalty-scare","43":"tag-penalty-shout","44":"tag-phil-foden","45":"tag-pitchside-monitor","46":"tag-portugal","47":"tag-qualification-results","48":"tag-rico-lewis","49":"tag-russia","50":"tag-second-half-equaliser","51":"tag-skopje","52":"tag-southern-europe","53":"tag-spain","54":"tag-territorial-dominance","55":"tag-theatrical-fall","56":"tag-western-europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}