September 08, (THEWILL) – France took a significant step towards qualifying for Euro 2024 with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ireland in Paris, on Thursday night.
Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni opened the scoring with a superb long-range strike into the top corner in the 19th minute. Marcus Thuram then doubled Les Bleus’ lead shortly after half-time after replacing the injured Olivier Giroud. The win leaves World Cup runners-up France with a maximum 15 points from 5 matches in Group B.
They have yet to concede a goal and hold a commanding 9-point lead over second-placed Netherlands and Greece. The Dutch kept their own qualification hopes alive with a 3-0 defeat of Greece earlier on Thursday. Ireland, meanwhile, remain bottom of the group on just 3 points from 4 games. They face an uphill task to qualify and will likely need to beat Netherlands at home on Sunday to stay in contention.
Manager Didier Deschamps was able to give Lucas Hernandez his first appearance since suffering a serious knee injury at the World Cup. The match marked France’s 900th international fixture and was played at the Parc des Princes with the Stade de France currently in use for the Rugby World Cup. Kylian Mbappe thought he had scored in the first half only for it to be ruled out for offside. Ousmane Dembele also struck the post as France dominated.
Ireland rarely threatened but goalkeeper Mike Maignan did well to deny Chiedozie Ogbene from close range at 1-0. In the end France were comfortable winners and look set to book their place at next year’s Euros in Germany.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
