England is going to the European Championships, it’s going to be tight for Italy

England’s national football team has secured their ticket to the 2024 European Championship finals. The “Three Lions” won the Group C match against Italy 3-1 in qualifying on Tuesday evening and thus also took revenge for the defeat in the 2021 European Championship final at London’s Wembley Stadium. Harry Kane with his international goals 60 (32nd/penalty) and 61 (77th) and Marcus Rashford (57th) turned the game around after Gianluca Scamacca (15th) scored early for the Italians.

The English made a false start in front of a sold-out crowd. After a cross from right-back Giovanni di Lorenzo, the 24-year-old Bergamo striker Scamacca ice-coldly finished in the middle. On the other hand, it was Di Lorenzo who came into the spotlight negatively when he came too late in the duel with the outstanding Jude Bellingham in the penalty area and hit the Real Madrid player on the foot. Kane showed no nerves and gave Gianluigi Donnarumma no chance to defend. Kane also scored from the spot in the 2021 penalty thriller, but back then Italy secured the title with a 3-2 win.

Even after the break, offensive highlights were in absolute short supply, with two great transition moments making the difference. Rashford completed a counterattack initiated by Bellingham from his own box with a shot into the far corner. The Italians had given him too much space. 20 minutes later, Kane completed another counter-attack in impressive style. The 30-year-old Bayern striker further extended his own record goal tally in England and is now the player who has scored the most goals at Wembley with 24 goals.

The Italians fell three points behind Ukraine in third place in the table. The Ukrainians, who played one more game, fulfilled their “obligatory task” in Ta’Qali against Malta with a 3-1 win. Everything boils down to a “final” between the two teams on November 20th in Leverkusen.

In Group G, Hungary took the next step towards the European Championships with a 2-2 draw in Lithuania. Thanks to goals from ex-Salzburg’s Dominik Szoboszlai (67’/penalty) and ex-Mattersburger’s Barnabas Varga (82′) after Szoboszlai’s preparatory work, the Hungarians were able to avert defeat after being 2-0 down. They are one point ahead of the Serbs, who have played one more game. After a 3-1 home win against Montenegro in Belgrade, they also have the best chance of a top two place. With a deficit of six or five points, the Montenegrins only have a mini-chance.

In Pool H, Slovenia retained pole position with a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland. Denmark is just behind on points after a 2-1 win at San Marino. With a 2-1 win in Finland, even though they were four points behind, Kazakhstan still had the chance to make it into the top two. The Finns are out of the race. Before all games there was a minute’s silence after the fatal attack on two Swedish football fans in Brussels and the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.