By ,
Published October 10, 2015
The Netherlands kept alive its hopes of qualifying for next year's European Championship by beating Kazakhstan 2-1.
Midfielders Georginio Wijnaldum and Wesley Sneijder scored in the 33rd and 50th minutes respectively to ensure the fight for third spot in Group A goes down to the final round of qualifiers on Tuesday. Islambek Kuat scored a consolation goal with the last touch of the match.
Already-qualified Iceland squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Latvia. Turkey, which will assure itself of third place and a playoff spot if it wins its last two matches, plays already qualified Czech Republic later Saturday.
The Netherlands has not missed a major tournament since the 2002 World Cup.
Stephan El Shaarawy ended a three-year drought by scoring the winning goal as Italy beat Azerbaijan 3-1 Saturday to qualify for next year's European Championship.
After Eder's opener and an equalizer from Dmitri Nazarov, El Shaarawy finished off a counterattack in the 43rd for his first national team goal since November 2012.
Manchester United's Matteo Darmian added another for Italy in the second half.
Norway also took a big step toward qualifying with a 2-0 win over Malta.
Alexander Tettey and Alexander Soderlund scored either side of halftime for Norway in Oslo. Norway is seeking its second tournament appearance after exiting from the group stage in 2000.
Italy has 21 points in Group H, Norway is next with 19 and Croatia, which hosts Bulgaria later, is third with 14.
Information from FOXSoccer.com's newswire services was used in this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/netherlands-stay-alive-in-euro-2016-hunt-italy-clinch-spot-after-win