Serbia qualify for Euro 2024 after 2-2 draw with Bulgaria
LESKOVAC, Serbia Nov 19 (Reuters) - Serbia qualified for Euro 2024 following a 2-2 home draw against Bulgaria in their Group G qualifier on Sunday, as Montenegro went down 3-1 in Hungary.
The Serbians began the day second in the group, two points ahead of Montenegro, and two points behind already qualified Hungary. One point would guarantee qualification even if Montenegro won in Budapest thanks to their head-to-head record.
The home side opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a Milos Veljkovic header, but Bulgaria came back in the second half through goals from Georgi Rusev in the 59th minute and Kiril Despodov 10 minutes later.
Serbia found the equaliser in the 82nd minute as Srdjan Babic headed home from close range, to calm the nerves of the home fans.
In the other game Montenegro took the lead in the 36th minute through Slobodan Rubezic, but Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai scored twice in two minutes in the second half and Adam Nagy grabbed an added time goal to make it 3-1.
Hungary top the group on 18 points with Serbia on 14, and Montenegro finished third with 11 points and cannot make the playoffs.
Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar
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