FC St. Pauli

Greece picked up three important points in their Euro qualifying campaign on Friday evening when Gustavo Poyet’s side won 2-0 in Ireland. The victory saw Greece retain second place in Group B behind France, who sealed qualification for Euro 2024 with a 2-1 success against third-placed Netherlands. Manolis Saliakas featured in the Greek squad for the first time in two years in Ireland but was not used. Greece then took on the Netherlands in a crunch encounter on Monday evening. A win would have put them course to qualify, but they were beaten by a Virgil van Dijk penalty in the third minute of second-half time added on. Saliakas was not included in the squad for this game. The Dutch are now level on points with Greece in the table but moved ahead them despite having a worse goal difference because they lead in the head-to-head, having beaten them twice. Greece can only qualify for the summer tournament in Germany if they beat group winners France in their final game and the Netherlands fail to win against either Ireland or Gibraltar.

Manolis Saliakas (right) did not feature against Ireland or the Netherlands.

Danel Sinani and Luxembourg could only draw 1-1 with Iceland in Group J on Friday evening and thus missed out on the opportunity to go level on points with second-placed Slovakia, who lost 3-2 in Portugal. Sinani featured from start to finish in Iceland and almost gave his side the lead on the 69^th minute with a shot that hit the crossbar. Luxembourg had another chance to move into second against Slovakia on Monday evening but lost 1-0. Sinani again played the full 90 minutes. Qualification now looks beyond Luxembourg’s reach, as they now trail Slovakia by five points with just two games left to play.

With Slovakia losing and Luxembourg drawing on Friday evening, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2024 were still alive, and a 2-0 win in Liechtenstein saw them close the gap to Slovakia and Luxembourg to four and two points respectively. Nikola Vasilj was an unused substitute. He and his teammates desperately needed to follow up with another win against Portugal, who had already qualified, but Savo Milošević’s team were thumped 5-0 at home on Monday evening to end their chances of qualifying. Vasilj replaced the injured Ibrahim Šehić (knee) in the 72^nd minute.

Nikola Vasilj made his first appearance for Bosnia-Herzegovina since September 2022 against Portugal.

Australia, for whom Jackson Irvine and Connor Metcalfe both started, put in an excellent performance in a friendly against England on Friday evening but eventually slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat in front of 81,116 spectators at Wembley Stadium, Ollie Watkins grabbing the winner for the Three Lions on 57 minutes. Irvine, who had made his debut for the Socceroos almost ten years previously to the day in a 3-0 win over Canada in London, featured from start to finish, while Metcalfe, who was unfortunate to see a header hit the post following an 80^th minute corner, was substituted just before the final whistle.

On Tuesday evening, Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 in London to win the Soccer Ashes, a fixture that took place for the first time since 1954. Metcalfe started again and was replaced in the 81^st minute, while Irvine came on in the 66^th minute and scored the second goal with a header from a corner ten minutes later.

.@jacksonirvine_ rises highest to head home and double our lead!

🎥 @10FootballAU #AUSvNZL #Socceroos pic.twitter.com/pTJPtAkeqi

— Subway Socceroos (@Socceroos) October 17, 2023

Photos: Aleksandar Jason / Intime - Dimitris Birdachas / Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Federation