Euro qualifiers 2020: Belgium scores 9, secures first spot in tournament

10 matches took place across Europe to kick off Euro qualifying

Romelu Lukaku made history Thursday, becoming the first to score 50 international goals for Belgium.  @UEFAEuro/Twitter

Belgium became the first team to qualify for the 2020 UEFA European Championship with a 9-0 win over San Marino on Thursday.

The result ties a team record for largest margin of victory, which has now been reached on five separate occasions.

Romelu Lukaku scored twice in the first half as the Belgians went into break leading 6-0. The striker was pleased with his team’s performance, but admitted they would have liked to set a new benchmark.

“9-0 is a good result, but we would have loved to have scored one more and broken that all-time record,” said Lukaku.

Nacer Chadli, Toby Alderweireld, and Youri Tielemans joined Lukaku in finding the back of the net in the first half.

Christian Benteke, Yari Verschaeren, and Timothy Castagne joined the Red Devils scoring spree in the final 45 minutes.

Belgium remains undefeated in qualifying and a victory in their upcoming match against Kazakhstan would secure Group I’s top spot.

Behind the Red Devils are Russia, which need just two points in order to secure their place in Euro 2020. The Russians are matched up on Sunday with Cyprus, which needs a victory to keep its hopes alive of reaching the European championships.

Group C is tightly contested with Germany, Netherlands and Northern Ireland fighting for two spots. In Group E, Croatia beat Hungary 3-0 to claim top position in the table.

In Group G Poland beat 3-0 Latvia away from home and with a win against Northern Macedonia on Sunday, will secure a place in the tournament.

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Posted: Oct 10 2019 8:06 pm
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