France survive Ireland scare, Netherlands ease past Gibraltar

Right-back Benjamin Pavard scored the winner for France — AFPPARIS: France held on to beat Ireland 1-0 in Dublin on Monday to win their second Euro 2024 qualifier, while the Netherlands eased past Gibraltar 3-0.Right-back Benjamin Pavard pounced with half an hour remaining at a sold-out Lansdowne Road before two superb Mike Maignan saves in the final two minutes. With 30 seconds to play in Dublin, AC Milan´s Maignan, who has succeeded former captain Hugo Lloris as Les Bleus´ goalkeeper, tipped over team-mate Jules Kounde´s panicked header.From the resulting corner Maignan saved the visitors´ skin as he made a similar save from Nathan Collins´ powerful effort."Mike´s stop allowed us to stay in the match and claim a clean sheet, so I´m going to say that he´s the man of the match," Bayern Munich´s Pavard told television channel TF1."I had the chance to play, it was succesful, I scored, even if a defender´s main objective is to defend well," he added.In Rotterdam, Manchester City centre-back Nathan Ake scored twice in a little over half an hour as the Netherlands overcame 10-men Gibraltar, 200th in the FIFA rankings.Atletico Madrid forward Memphis Depay opened the scoring in the first half with a towering header before veteran Liam Walker was shown a red card the other side of the break.Oranje captain Virgil van Dijk bemoaned a lack of goals at De Kuip from his team, who lost heavily to France in their Group B opener on Friday."You score three goals, but you have to score many more," van Dijk said."This is a game where you can hardly ever get it right. You have to win 10-0, so to speak," he added.Gregoritsch's 'rollercoaster'In Group F, Sweden bounced back from a heavy opening defeat to Belgium by hammering Azerbaijan 5-0 in Solna.Emile Forsberg, Viktor Gyokeres, Jesper Karlsson and Anthony Elanga netted for the hosts and Bahlul Mustafazade scored an own goal.Austria avoided an upset at home to beat Estonia 2-1 despite trailing after 25 minutes from a Rauno Sappinen effort.Cologne winger Florian Kainz opened his account for his country with 22 minutes to play before Michael Gregoritsch completed the comeback with two minutes to go.Real Madrid´s David Alaba came off the bench after 46 minutes after Gregoritsch has missed a first half penalty."I´ve had enough of rollercoaster rides," Gregoritsch told broadcasters ORF."I also have to apologise to the team for letting them worry for so long," he added.Dominik Szoboszlai superb free-kick set Hungary on their way to a 3-0 success over Bulgaria as they started their campaign clinically.Elsewhere in Group G, Dusan Vlahovic´s double were more than enough as Serbia beat Montenegro 2-0 in only their third meeting since Montenegro declared independence in 2006.In Group E, the Czech Republic were held 0-0 by lowly Moldova as Karol Swiderski scored his ninth goal in 21 internationals as Poland beat Albania 1-0 after losing to the Czechs on Friday.On Tuesday, the pick of the ties is in Group A as Spain head to Scotland with the next international window in June. Comments Submit مضمون کا ماخذ:comprar raspadinha