With half an hour left at Lansdowne Road, right-back Benjamin Pavard pounced before two superb Mike Maignan saves in the final two minutes
France won their second Euro 2024 qualifier on Monday, defeating Ireland 1-0 in Dublin, while the Netherlands easily defeated Gibraltar 3-0. With half an hour left at Lansdowne Road, right-back Benjamin Pavard pounced before two superb Mike Maignan saves in the final two minutes. AC Milan’s Maignan, who has replaced previous captain Hugo Lloris as France’s goalkeeper, tipped over teammate Jules Kounde’s panicked header with 30 seconds remaining in Dublin.
Maignan saved the visitors’ skin from the resulting corner, as he did from Nathan Collins’ powerful attempt.
“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 skipper Virgil van Dijk bemoaned his team’s lack of goals at De Kuip after they were defeated by France in their Group B opener on Friday.
“You score three goals, but you need a lot more,” van Dijk said.
“In this game, you almost never get it right.” “You have to win by a score of 10-0,” he added.
“Rollercoaster” by Gregoritsch
Sweden hammered Azerbaijan 5-0 in Solna to rebound from a heavy opening loss to Belgium.
For the hosts, Emile Forsberg, Viktor Gyokeres, Jesper Karlsson, and Anthony Elanga scored, while Bahlul Mustafazade got an own goal.
Despite trailing after 25 minutes to a Rauno Sappinen effort, Austria defeated Estonia 2-1 at home.
Florian Kainz of Cologne scored his first international goal with 22 minutes remaining, and Michael Gregoritsch sealed the comeback with two minutes remaining.
After Gregoritsch missed a penalty in the first half, Real Madrid’s David Alaba came off the substitute after 46 minutes.
“I’m tired of rollercoaster rides,” Gregoritsch told ORF radio.
“I also have to apologise to the team for causing them so much anxiety for so long,” he added.
Hungary started their campaign with a 3-0 victory over Bulgaria, due to a superb free-kick from Dominik Szoboszlai.
Serbia defeated Montenegro 2-0 in Group G, due to a Dusan Vlahovic double. Their third encounter since Montenegro declared independence in 2006.
In Group E, Moldova held the Czech Republic to a 0-0 draw, while Karol Swiderski scored his ninth goal in 21 internationals as Poland beat Albania 1-0 the day before after losing to the Czechs the day before.
Spain travels to Scotland on Tuesday for the start of the next international season, which starts in June.
