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Late victory against Andorra strengthens Turkey in the Euro 2020 qualifiers

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Late victory against Andorra strengthens Turkey in the Euro 2020 qualifiers

The Turkish national team has relaunched its Euro 2020 campaign against Andorra on Saturday in Istanbul. A goal in the 89th minute gave Turkey their first victory in qualifying. Fans from all over the world can buy Turkey Euro Cup Tickets online.

The team continued its balanced momentum in Group H. It was his fourth victory in five games and put Turkey behind the French leader with 12 points and was ahead of Iceland, the only team to have lost so far in qualifying.

 

The match at Vodafone Park Stadium, near the Bosphorus coast, was held in front of a packed crowd, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president, a former footballer himself, visited the team in the locker room after the match and congratulated the players.

It was Fenerbahce midfielder Ozan Tufan's fifth goal in 44 games, while supporters also applauded Emre Belozoglu. Belozoglu, the veteran playmaker from Fenerbahce, celebrated his 100th goal for Turkey in Saturday's match.

Tufan was one of many substitutes in the match as coach Şenol Güneş was desperate for a tiebreaker. He replaced Umut Meraş in the 61st minute. Sivasspor midfielder Emre Kılınc was also selected for the national team for the first time when he replaced Hakan Calhanoglu in the 81st minute.

"I congratulate the team, we held out for a long time," Andorra coach Koldo Alvarez said in a post-match press conference, praising his players "who did everything against pressing Turkey."

"This was how we expected the match to play out. We struggled pretty well and held out especially against Hakan Calhanoglu and Cenk Tosun. We focused on shutting down the midfield for them in the first half and we accomplished that," Alvarez added.

On Saturday, in other matches, France and England climbed to the top of their qualifying group for Euro 2020 as their victories were easy. France, world champion, won a comfortable 4-1 victory against Albania. Kingsley Coman hit twice, while Harry Kane scored a hat trick as England beat Bulgaria 4-0.

Kosovo is second in Group A behind England after a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic, extending their unbeaten run to 15 games. Ukraine beat Lithuania 3-0 to clear the top of Group B, while Portugal won 4-2 in Serbia to finish second.

The match of France in Saint-Denis began wrongly, while the Andorran national anthem was played in place of Albanian. Visitors were not ready to kick off until the situation was corrected. However, before the good hymn was played, the stadium announcer mistakenly presented the apology "to Armenia".

France was much smoother on the field and Bayern Munich's Coman was twice in an astonishingly impressive. For live-action, you can buy France Euro Cup Tickets online.

The winger was included in the starting lineup because of the injury of the Paris St. Germain striker Kylian Mbappe and tried his luck with both hands. Didier Deschamps's team took the lead after eight minutes when Coman finished calmly after a nice deep pass from Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane.

Chelsea forward Olivier Giroud doubled France's lead, finishing in the 27th minute. Antoine Griezmann of Barcelona should have scored three goals but hit the crossbar with a penalty.

Coman scored his second goal after the break after a team moves to give the France head a deserved maneuver, with substitute Jonathan Ikone getting a good fourth place.

Hugo Lloris conceded a penalty late for France and could not avoid the consolation of Sokol Cikalleshi. Iceland beat Moldova 3-0 in Reykjavik for third, tied for 12 points in five games with French and Turkish leaders.

Kolbeinn Sigthorsson broke the deadlock shortly after the half-hour mark as Iceland dominated the match. Birkir Bjarnason took the second goal in the 55th minute as Victor Mudrac's goal completed the pass.

England's Gareth Southgate advanced to Group A in front of Kosovo, with Kane tripling against a weak Bulgarian side.

Kane scored a quick offside goal, but he quickly scored on the score when Bulgarian goalkeeper Plamen Iliev gave the ball to Raheem Sterling and allowed him to prepare the English skipper.

It was the only chance of a bitter first half at Wembley, but Kane doubled his penalty-spot early in the second period when Nikolay Bodurov defeated Marcus Rashford. Kane set up Sterling for the third after 55 minutes, as England tore up their opponents. The Tottenham striker added his third goal on a penalty, while England saw the match with style.

"In a game like this, you have to make sure the concentration is correct, I always thought we had enough firepower to win the game," Southgate said. "I'm generally happy, some of our offensive games have been really exciting."

Ukraine also remained undefeated and recorded their fourth victory in five qualifying matches to raise their Group B lead to eight points with a comfortable victory in Lithuania.

Strikers Oleksandr Zinchenko and Marlos in the first period put them under control and Ruslan Malinovskyi added the third goal after the break with a powerful shot while the visitors kept a fourth clear without fault.

Portugal beat a thriller in Serbia to usurp their opponents and move to second place. William Carvalho and Goncalo Guedes added two goals to their visitors. Cristiano Ronaldo added a third after Nikola Milenkovic reduced one.

Aleksandar Mitrovic struck to narrow the gap again, but Bernardo Silva scored at home to seal Portugal's win.

Football fans can get Euro Cup Tickets through our trusted online ticketing market place. EuroTickets2020.com is the most reliable source to book Euro 2020 tickets.

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