EURO 2024 play-off semi wrap – Win for Wales, Isreal dumped out by Iceland and Ukraine stage glorious comeback

Neco Williams of Wales celebrates scoring his team’s second goal with team mates during the UEFA EURO 2024 Play-Offs Semi-final match between Wales and Finland at Cardiff City Stadium on March 21, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales.

Neco Williams of Wales celebrates scoring his team’s second goal with team mates during the UEFA EURO 2024 Play-Offs Semi-final match between Wales and Finland at Cardiff City Stadium on March 21, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales. Credit: (Photo by Jan Kruger – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

The six teams to be paired off to play in next week’s three EURO 2024 play-off finals are now confirmed after Thursday’s one legged semi-finals.

Wales will play Poland, Georgia v Greece, and Ukraine will take on Iceland in Wroclaw.

The winners of each of those three play-off finals taking place on Tuesday will reach EURO 2024 - completing the 24-nation line-up for the finals in Germany this summer.

Path A

In Warsaw Poland crushed Estonia 5-1 and will travel to Cardiff next week to take on Wales who defeated Finland 4-1. The Poles are unbeaten now in their last 21 home EURO qualifier matches.

In Cardiff, Estonia were already a goal down before they lost Maksim Paskotsi to a red card. At half time they trailed 2-0 and the home side scored three times in six second half minutes before Martin Vetkal scored a consolation goal.

Path B

Geona striker Albert Gudmundsson’s hat-trick propelled Iceland to their play-off semi-final win over Israel. The match was played in Budapest as Isreal are banned from playing at home due to the war in Gaza.

Gudmundsson became only the second player to score a hat-trick in a Euro play-off. Ruud van Nistelrooy was the first player to do so in the Netherlands' 6-0 second-leg win against Scotland in 2003.

Iceland will play Ukraine in next week’s Path B play-off final after their 2-1 away win against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnians were leading 1-0 five minutes from time but glory came to Ukraine thanks to goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk.



That match is a home game for Ukraine but will be played in Wroclaw in Poland.

Path C

In the early game Georgia earned a 2-0 win over ten man Luxembourg in their Path C semi-final  in Tbilisi thanks to a Budu Zivzivadze double. Maxime Chanot getting a red card in the 58th minute and will miss next week’s second leg.

They will host Greece in the final as the Gus Poyet’s side thumped Kazakhstan 5-0 in the OPAP Arena in Athens.

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile