Home Nations Make A Solid Start To Their Euro 2024 Qualifying Campaign

The first two matchdays for the 2024 European Championships qualifying campaign are now in the history books and it has been a very good start to the qualifiers for most of the home nations.

England, Scotland and Wales have all made very encouraging starts towards getting to Germany in the summer of 2024, while Northern Ireland have also picked up one win, but also suffered a disappointing home defeat.

In this article, we’ll recap the results of the first two Matchdays before taking a look at each of the tables as they stand and then we will be looking ahead to Matchday 3 and 4 fixtures, together with how the results of the first two matchdays have affected the outright betting markets on who will win the tournament.

Of course, any odds you see quoted in this article are courtesy of bet365 Sport and were correct at the time of writing, but may have changed in the meantime.

Let’s first begin with a recap of all the results from Matchdays 1 and 2.

2024 European Championship Qualifiers – Results

Matchday 1

Thursday 23^rd March

• Kazahstan 1-2 Slovenia – (Samorodov 23), (Brekalo 47, Vipotnik 78)
• Denmark 3-1 Finland – (Hojlund 21,82,90+3), (Antman 53)
• Portugal 4-0 Liechtenstein – (Cancelo 8, Silva 47, Ronaldo 51(p),63)
• San Marino 0-2 Northern Ireland – (Charles 24.55)
• N.Macedonia 2-1 Malta – (Elmas 66, Churlinov 72), (Yankam 85)
• Bosnia & Herz 3-0 Iceland – (Krunic 14,40, Dedic 63)
• Slovakia 0-0 Luxembourg
• Italy 1-2 England – (Retagui 56), (Rice 13, Kane 44(p))

Friday 24^th March

• Bulgaria 0-1 Montenegro – (Kristovic 70)
• Gibraltar 0-3 Greece – (Masouras 11, Siopis 45, Baksetas 58)
• Moldova 1-1 Faroe Islands – (Nicolaescu 87(p)), (Boe Mikkelsen 27)
• Serbia 2-0 Lithuania – (Tadic 16, Vlahovic 53)
• Austria 4-1 Azerbaijan – (Sabiter 27,50, Gregoritsch 29, Baumgartner 69), (Mahmudov 64)
• Sweden 0-3 Belgium – (Lukaku 35,49,82)
• Czechia 3-1 Poland – (Krejci 1, Cvancara 3, Kuchta 64), (Szymanski 87)
• France 4-0 Netherlands – (Griezmann 2, Upamecano 8, Mbappe 21,88)

Saturday 25^th March

• Scotland 3-0 Cyprus – (McGinn 21, McTominay 87,90+3)
• Israel 1-1 Kosovo – (Peretz 56), (Dasa 36 og)
• Armenia 1-2 Turkey – (Kabak 10 og), (Kokcy 34, Akturkoglu 64)
• Belarus 0-5 Switzerland – (Steffen 4,17,29, Xhaka 62, Amdouni 65)
• Spain 3-0 Norway – (Olmo 13, Joselu 83,85)
• Croatia 1-1 Wales – (Kramaric 28), (Broadhead 90+3)
• Andorra 0-2 Romania – (Man 34, Albec 49)

Matchday 2

Sunday 26^th March

• Kazakhstan 3-2 Denmark – (Zaynutdinov 73(p), Tagybergen 86, Aimbetov 89), (Hojlung 21,35)
• England 2-0 Ukraine – (Kane 37, Saka 40)
• Liechtenstein 0-7 Iceland – (Olafsson 3, Haraldsson 38, Gunnarsson 48,68,73(p), Gudjohnsen 85, Ellertsson 87)
• Slovenia 2-0 San Marino – (Sesko 56, Di Maio og 60)
• Slovakia 2-0 Bosnia-Herz – (Mak 13, Haraslin 40)
• Northern Ireland 0-1 Finland – (Kallman 28)
• Luxembourg 0-6 Portugal – (Ronaldo 9,31, Felix 15, Silva.B 18, Otavio 77, Leao 88)
• Malta 0-2 Italy – (Retegui 15, Pessina 27)

Monday 27^th March

• Montenegro 0-2 Serbia – (Vlahovic 79, 90+5)
• Netherlands 3-0 Gibraltar – (Depay 23, Ake 50,82)
• Poland 1-0 Albania – (Swiderski 41)
• Austria 2-1 Estonia – (Kainz 68, Gregoritsch 88), (Sappinen 25)
• Sweden 5-0 Azerbaijan – (Forsberg 38, Mustafadzada 65 og, Gyokeres 79, Karlsson 88, Elanga 89)
• Moldova 0-0 Czechia
• Hungary 3-0 Bulgaria – (Vecsei 7, Szoboszlai 26, Adam 39)
• Rep of Ireland 0-1 France – (Pavard 50)

Tuesday 28^th March

• Georgia 1-1 Norway – (Mikautadze 60), (Sorloth 15)
• Wales 1-0 Latvia – (Moore 41)
• Romania 2-1 Belarus – (Stanciu 17, Burca 19), (Morozov 86)
• Switzerland 3-0 Israel – (Vargas 39, Amdouni 47, Widmer 52)
• Kosovo 1-1 Andorra – (Zhegrova 59), (Rosas 61)
• Turkey 0-2 Croatia – (Kovacic 20, 45+4)
• Scotland 2-0 Spain – (McTominay 7,51)

Euro 2024 Qualification Current Group Tables

Home nations are shown in Bold.

Home Nations Review

Scotland made a sensational start in Group A, defeating Cyprus 3-0 at Hampden Park thanks to goals from John McGinn and a late Scott McTominay double.

The Manchester United midfielder then proved to be the matchwinner against Spain as Scotland recorded an outstanding 2-0 win over the Spanish to take the early lead in Group A.

England also began with a 100% record securing a fantastic 2-1 win in Italy and following that up with a 2-0 win over the Ukraine at Wembley three days later.

With maximum points from what are likely to be two of their most difficult ties in the Group, manager Gareth Southgate can be pleased with his side’s start to the campaign.

Minus Gareth Bale, Wales were not expected to be much resistance to Croatia in split, but a late Broadhead equaliser gave the Welsh a fantastic 1-1 draw in what is likely to be their toughest game in the group.

The Dragons then followed that up with a 1-0 win over Latvia on Wednesday night, thanks to Kieffer Moore’s fine header. They sit second in Group D behind Croatia on goal difference.

Lastly, Northern Ireland made a winning start to their campaign with a 2-0 win over San Marino with Bolton’s Dion Charles scoring both goals.

However, they were beaten 1-0 by Finland in their first home game of the campaign in a group that looks to be one of the most open in the qualification tournament.

Euro 2024 Qualifiers – Stats Attack

• 100% Record (after Matchday 2) – Portugal, Switzerland, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, England, Greece, France, Scotland
• Most Goals Scored – Portugal – 10 in 2 games
• Fewest Goals Conceded – Portugal, Switzerland, Slovakia, Serbia, Hungary, Belgium, France, Greece, Scotland – all 0 goals conceded
• Top Goalscorer – Rasmus Hojlund (Denmark) – 5 goals

Euro 2024 Qualifiers – Matchday 3 & 4

Matchday 3 takes place from the 16^th June to the 17^th June, while Matchday 4 takes place from the 19^th June to the 20^th June.

The full set of fixtures for both matchdays are shown below and kick off times are 7.45pm UK time unless otherwise stated.

Matchday 3

16^th June

• Finland v Slovenia (5pm)
• Malta v England
• Latvia v Turkey
• North Macedonia v Ukraine
• Kosovo v Romania
• Greece v Rep of Ireland
• Belarus v Israel
• Wales v Armenia
• Denmark v Northern Ireland
• Andorra v Switzerland
• Gibraltar v France
• San Marino v Kazakhstan

17^th June

• Luxembourg v Liechtenstein (2pm)
• Lithuania v Bulgaria (2pm)
• Montenegro v Hungary (5pm)
• Azerbaijan v Estonia (5pm)
• Norway v Scotland (5pm)
• Iceland v Slovakia
• Faroe Islands v Czechia
• Cyprus v Georgia
• Belgium v Austria
• Albania v Moldova
• Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina

Matchday 4

19^th June

• Armenia v Latvia (5pm)
• Finland v San Marino (5pm)
• Switzerland v Romania
• Turkey v Wales
• England v North Macedonia
• Northern Ireland v Kazakhstan
• Rep of Ireland v Gibraltar
• France v Greece
• Ukraine v Malta
• Israel v Andorra
• Slovenia v Denmark
• Belarus v Kosovo

20^th June

• Bulgaria v Serbia
• Iceland v Portugal
• Norway v Cyprus
• Hungary v Lithuania
• Bosnia & Herzegovina v Luxembourg
• Austria v Sweden
• Moldova v Poland
• Scotland v Georgia
• Estonia v Belgium
• Faroe Islands v Albania
• Liechtenstein v Slovakia

Latest Betting For Outright Euro 2024 Winner

There has been some movement in the odds for the outright winner of Euro 2024 after the first two qualifiers. England have been backed in to 5/1 joint favourites alongside France now, with Germany drifting to 11/2 and Spain also drifting out to 9/1.

Wales have seen their odds come in from 80/1 to 66/1, while Scotland are another team whose odds have come right in from 200/1 down to 100/1 after their 100% start.

Check back in June when we preview and tip the games for Matchdays 3 and 4 in the qualification tournament!