Wales knocked out in Euro 2024 play off final via penalty shoot out | OneFootball

The final three places at EURO 2024 were up for grabs this evening, with six sides competing for a place in this summer’s tournament beginning in Germany in June.

Here’s how its all went down.

Wales knocked out on penalties

Wales played host to Poland in the Group C Euro 2024 final, in a game that pitted FIFA’s 29th and 30th ranked sides against each other.

It was Poland that began the brighter, but Rob Page’s side looked a threat on the break and twice found Kieffer Moore’s head from corners in the opening quarter of the game, though the Ipswich loanee couldn’t direct either of them on goal.

The game continued to be finely poised, with both sides coming close. Wales thought that they had opened the scoring in first half stoppage time through Ben Davies, only for the offside flag to be raised, meaning that they headed into the break goalless.

Wales again threatened in the second half, with Wojciech Szczesny tipping a Moore header over the bar.

Though both sides had chances, it was unsurprising to see the two lowest scoring sides to qualify head to extra time.

The visitors dominated the extra 30 minutes, with Wales sitting deeper and deeper as they just about held on, still looking to hit Poland on the counter attack.

It ticked towards penalties, but not before Wales centre-back Chris Mepham was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 121st minute of the game, leaving Wales to contest the penalties with just 10 players.

A series of perfect penalties followed, and after Dan James missed Wales’ fifth from the spot, it was Poland who booked the last spot at Euro 2024.

Mudryk sends Ukraine to Euro 2024

Scorers: Tsygankov 54′, Mudryk 84′; Gudmundson 30′

Ukraine were hoping to continue their impressive qualification record for the European Championships, having been present at the last three events.

However, they looked sluggish in the first half and couldn’t find a way past a stubborn Iceland side, who punished that on the half hour mark. In-form Genoa striker Albert Gudmundsson picked the ball up midway inside the Ukraine half and rifled home an excellent effort from 25 yards out to hand the minnows an unlikely lead.

Ukraine rallied, and thought that they had bought themselves back level five minutes before the interval when Roman Yaremchuk poked home with his left foot from close range. However, a VAR check ruled the goal out for offside in the build up.

The second half saw Ukraine continue to dominate the ball, and they finally got their reward when Viktor Tsygankov found the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area, and pull his side back into the tie.

They continued to rack up the efforts on goal, but couldn’t find a way past the stubborn minnows. Eventually though, they found a way to break them down. Sudakov’s pass found Chelsea star Mykhailo Mudryk, who swept into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area to send his side into the finals of Euro 2024.

Georgia knock out Greece on penalties

The first game saw Georgia go head-to-head with Greece.

Georgia had never beaten their opponents, and have never managed to reach the finals of a major competition either, while Greece had not reached the finals of a major tournament since Brazil 2014.

It was Greece that saw more of the ball in a bitty first half, but Georgia looked the more dangerous, registering six shots to their opponents one, though just one of those was on target.

Both teams continued to push for the opening goal heading into the second half, but a lack of quality across the pitch saw chances few and far between.

The 90 minutes ended with 16 shots between the two sides, but just one on target, and extra time beckoned.

Greece finally found the target in the first half of extra time, with Anastasios Bakasetas drawing a save.

Georgia raced into a 2-0 lead in the shootout, but were quickly pegged back when Georges Mikautadze rolled Georgia’s third penalty wide.

They kept their cool though, and after Georgios Giakoumakis sent his penalty wide, Nika Kvekveskiri sent Georgia to this summer’s tournament and made history.