Late goal sends Ukraine to Euro 2024

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 finalized 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 criticizing Russia and its president Vladimir Putin in the stadium in Wroclaw.

“A big thank-you to our fans,” Ukraine midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko said, “they helped us through these difficult times amazingly.”

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 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.

Poland became the last team to book its ticket to Germany, beating Wales 5-4 in a penalty shootout in Cardiff also after a 0-0 draw.

Poland will go into a tough Group D with France, the Netherlands and Austria.

Ukraine is in Group F with Belgium, Romania and Slovakia.

Georgia goes 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.