ANKARA
A UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying match Saturday saw a historic moment as a relentless French team hammered 10-man Gibraltar 14-0 to record their biggest victory ever and break Germany’s record against San Marino.
Superstar Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick at Nice’s Allianz Riviera, and eight other Les Bleus players — including 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery who scored in his France debut — were on the score sheet.
After Gibraltar defender Ethan Santos scored an own goal in the third minute, France saught to destroy their weak opponents. Santos was shown a red card in the 18th minute after France had a 3-0 lead.
Marcus Thuram and Zaire-Emery scored before Gibraltar were down to 10 men on the pitch.
Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot, Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud also found the net as Didier Deschamps’ men took an incredible win in a Group B match.
The demolition job meant that already-qualified France replaced Germany in the record books. Germany had a 13-0 win against San Marino in 2006 ahead of the EURO 2008.
Separately, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland were the latest teams to qualify for the EURO 2024 to be held in Germany.
France won Group B with 21 points in seven matches.
Les Bleus were the two-time EURO winners in 1984 and 2000. Deschamps was a France captain and midfielder when they won the EURO 2000 title.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands reached the EURO 2024 finals after they beat Ireland 1-0 in Amsterdam. Dutch striker Wout Weghorst scored the winning goal in the first half.
The Netherlands, the 1988 winners, are Group B’s runners-up with 15 points. The Dutch will visit Gibraltar on Nov. 21 to end the group stage, an irrelevant fixture for both teams.
Romania and Switzerland are the best two teams in Group I. They have secured their tickets for the finals.
Romania beat Israel 2-1 at Hungary’s Felcsut, and Switzerland drew 1-1 against Kosovo in Basel.
Both did enough to advance to next summer’s European football championship.
Romania have 19 points to lead the group, while the Swiss collected 17 points.
Third-place Israel have 12 points before next week’s final matchday.
On Nov. 21, Romania will host Switzerland in Bucharest, in a match that will reveal the winners of Group I.
