Published 12:52 IST, October 14th 2019
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.
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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.
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.
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)
12:12 IST, October 14th 2019