Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick in France’s record-breaking 14-0 thrashing of 10-man Gibraltar as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Romania booked their places at Euro 2024 on Saturday.
The French surpassed Germany's 13-0 win over San Marino in 2006 in their biggest ever win in international football. It was also the first time a European team had scored 14 goals in a World Cup or European Championship qualifying match.
Les Bleus set a new record margin of victory in European qualifying and a national record in Nice.
Ethan Santos' own goal and Marcus Thuram had already opened the floodgates before 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery scored.
That was Zaire-Emery's last contribution as the PSG midfielder was forced off with an ankle injury but a red card for Santos after just 18 minutes allowed the World Cup finalists to run amok.
Mbappe's penalty made it 4-0 and Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman and Youssouf Fofana all scored before half-time. Adrien Rabiot, Coman again and Ousmane Dembele kept the score ticking over before Mbappe struck twice to seal his hat-trick in style.
The France captain lobbed Dayle Coleing from just inside the Gibraltar half to register his 300th career goal aged just 24. Olivier Giroud then came off the bench to grab the final two goals and ensure the history books were re-written.
But the scoreline will raise fresh questions over the need for such clashes between giants and minnows in a congested fixture calendar.
Dutch joined France in qualifying from Group B with a 1-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland.
Wout Weghorst's powerful drive separated the sides in Amsterdam in what is likely to be Irish boss Stephen Kenny's final competitive game in charge.
Meanwhile, Romania reached just a second major tournament since 2008 by ending Israel’s chances of automatic qualification with a 2-1 win.
Switzerland also qualified despite being held 1-1 at home by Kosovo.
The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists moved into second place in Group D thanks to a 2-0 win in Latvia as Lovro Majer and Andrej Kramaric struck inside the first 16 minutes.
Wales must beat already-qualified Turkey in Cardiff on Tuesday and hope Croatia fail to beat Armenia at home.
