European Championship 2016 Qualifiers: Winners and Losers from Tuesday Games
The group stage of qualification for Euro 2016 is over and all the automatic qualifiers are now known—as is the list of nations who failed to make the grade.
An entertaining Tuesday night saw nine games played out simultaneously to decide the final qualifiers and the play-off contenders, with own goals, red cards and late strikes all playing their part in making an already tense occasion even more intriguing.
Here are all our winners and losers from the games.
Winners: Croatia, Taking the Final Automatic Qualification Spot on the Last Day
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Croatia started the evening in third and were already assured of a play-off spot at least, but they wanted to remove any doubt at all. To do that, they needed a win and to hope Italy could do them a favour, too.
It wasn't the most glamorous of locations or performances, but Croatia got the points they needed thanks to a 1-0 win in Malta, with Ivan Perisic scoring the goal to push Croatia up into second place in Group H. They lost just one of their 10 games, winning the last two against Bulgaria and Malta this international break to seal their path to France 2016.
Croatia leapfrogged Norway at the death.
Losers: Netherlands, an Utter Shambles
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Once the most admired of footballing nations for their capacity to produce outstanding players, be competitive on the world stage and play sublime football, Netherlands have slumped from third place at the 2014 World Cup to not qualifying at all for Euro 2016, a feat that looked impossible given the expanded tournament.
In all 24 teams qualify, three out of six have a chance of doing so in each group...and Netherlands still couldn't manage it.
They won just four of 10 qualifiers and were beaten 3-2 at home by Czech Republic on Tuesday, a match they had no option but to win to even have a chance of reaching the play-offs—but Netherlands were 3-0 down against 10 men and resorted to pumping long balls in the area.
A shocking performance and they deservedly missed out.
Winners: Turkey, Sealing Euro 2016 Spot as Best 3rd-Placed Team
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Turkey were the other team hoping to qualify for the play-offs at the expense of Netherlands—and needed a point at home to Iceland to do so.
In the last few minutes of the matches, Netherlands were mounting a comeback and Turkey found themselves down to 10 men, but a great free-kick from Selcuk Inan eased any worries the home fans might have had of a late Iceland goal ruining the party.
Netherlands didn't win in the end anyway so it didn't matter for third, but the late 1-0 win moved Turkey up to be the best third-placed team out of all the qualification groups, meaning instead of the play-offs, they automatically qualified for the European Championships.
Losers: Norway's Collapse Sees Them into Play-Offs
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Norway went into their last match in second place in Group H, but they faced their hardest match of the entire campaign: away to Italy, group winners and unbeaten throughout.
Being two points ahead of Croatia didn't really do much for Norway's chances; head-to-head results meant even a draw wouldn't be enough if Croatia beat Malta, a likely enough outcome—Norway needed to beat Italy on their own turf.
Things started well and Alex Tettey's superb goal put the Nordic nation in front, but two goals conceded in the final 15 minutes or so put paid to hopes of automatic qualification so Norway have to settle for the play-offs instead.
Winners: Bosnia-Herzegovina Sneak a Play-off Spot
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The group with the most teams still vying for something meaningful was Group B, with three teams fighting it out on the last day for third place and a play-off spot.
That spot eventually went to Bosnia-Herzegovina, who defeated Cyprus 3-2 in a back-and-forth fixture in which both sides gave everything to keep the Euro 2016 dream alive.
Milan Djuric was the eventual hero with the winner, putting Bosnia into the play-offs after they ended their qualifying campaign on a run of three successive wins.
Losers: Israel and Cyprus Miss out Entirely
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Israel and Cyprus were the unlucky two to miss out; Israel might have expected it, but Cyprus came so close and gave everything to reach the play-offs—and still just missed out.
The former had to win in Belgium to have any chance of third but conceded three in the second half before netting themselves, losing 3-1, while Cyprus had a winner-takes-all clash against Bosnia.
The Cypriots came from behind to lead 2-1 with a few minutes to play before half-time but couldn't hold on to the lead for a fifth win of the campaign. Those three points would have sent them third and into the play-offs...but defeat instead left them fifth. So close, yet so far.
