Ukraine found another late winning goal in another comeback win. Georgia and Poland held their nerve in penalty shootouts. All are going to the European Championship.
The 24-nation Euro 2024 lineup was finalised on Tuesday with three qualifying playoffs giving a stronger eastern European flavour to the tournament that opens June 14 in Germany.
Mykhailo Mudryk's sweeping low shot in the 84th minute lifted Ukraine to a 2-1 victory over Iceland and a second late comeback win in the playoffs for a team representing the war-torn country.
The “home” game for Ukraine was played in neutral Poland because international games cannot be played in Kyiv for security reasons during the military invasion by Russia, whose team Uefa banned from trying to qualify.
Ukraine fans' displayed yellow-and-blue banners criticising Russia and its president Vladimir Putin in the stadium in Wroclaw.
Georgia and star forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will make their major tournament debut at Euro 2024 after beating Greece 4-2 in a penalty shootout. It had been a tense and testy 0-0 draw in a raucous atmosphere in Tbilisi.
Wild celebrations saw thousands of Georgia fans in a 50,000 crowd at the national stadium pour onto the field and some climbed the goalposts to sit on the crossbar.
Poland became the last team to book their ticket to Germany, beating Wales 5-4 in a penalty shootout in Cardiff also after a 0-0 draw.
Poland captain Robert Lewandowski, who had scored the first spot-kick of the shootout, could not bear to watch the action when his goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny pushed away the final penalty taken by Dan James.
Poland will go into a tough Group D with France, the Netherlands and Austria.
Ukraine are in Group F with Belgium, Romania and Slovakia.
Georgia go into Group F to face Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, Turkey and the Czech Republic.
Euro 2024 will be played in 10 German cities from June 14 to July 14.
Two years ago, Ukraine fell just short in playoffs to reach the 2022 World Cup, eventually losing to Wales with a team emotionally drained from the effort four months into their homeland's invasion.
Ukraine would not be denied this time and twice within five days rallied in the second half and found a late goal to win 2-1. Last week, Coach Serhiy Rebrov's had trailed 1-0 in Bosnia-Herzegovina until the 85th.
In a game of stunning goals, Iceland led in the 30th on Albert Gudmundsson' s curling shot.
Viktor Tsygankov leveled in the 54th from just outside the Iceland penalty box, close to the spot where Chelsea winger Mudryk would win the game 30 minutes later.
Ukraine start against Romania in Munich on June 17, then play Slovakia in Dusseldorf on June 21 and top-seeded Belgium on June 26 in Stuttgart.
Georgian players have been European champions before — in the Soviet Union squad that won the inaugural title in 1960. Now the independent republic has earned the right to make its own football history in Germany.
AP/PTI
