Manuel Akanji and Switzerland took an important step towards booking a place at the Euros on Tuesday, while Jadon Sancho and England are on the verge of reaching the finals themselves following their 6-0 win in Bulgaria. With the international break drawing to a close, BVB.de has rounded up how the Black & Yellows fared with their respective national teams on Monday and Tuesday below.

A home defeat to group leaders Ireland in Geneva would have almost certainly seen Switzerland miss out on a place at the European Championships. But as it was, a side featuring Manuel Akanji in the starting XI beat the Irish 2-0 to put themselves in a much more promising position as Group D draws to a close. There was a small setback for the Borussia Dortmund defender, however, who picked up his third yellow card of the campaign and will now miss the next match against Georgia in November through suspension. Rivals Denmark claimed an untroubled 4-0 friendly victory over Luxembourg in Aalborg on Tuesday, although Thomas Delaney was an unused substitute.

Elsewhere, Jadon Sancho was part of the England side that travelled to Bulgaria on Monday. Sancho came off the bench in the 73rd minute as the Three Lions claimed a comfortable 6-0 win to put themselves within touching distance of the finals. Raphael Guerreiro's Portugal, however, cannot afford to relax just yet after losing 2-1 in Ukraine. Guerreiro played the full 90 minutes at left-back in the defeat, which allowed Group B rivals Serbia to close the gap between the two nations to a single point. Next up for Guerreiro and Portugal are minnows Latvia and Luxembourg to round off the qualifying campaign. Paco Alcácer and Spain, however, are sure of their place at the tournament. Although the centre-forward – who recently scored three goals in two games for the Spanish national team – did not feature due to injury, the Spaniards only needed a point in Sweden to be sure of their place next summer and ultimately drew 1-1.

Meanwhile, qualification for the U21 European Championships has only just begun. Jacob Bruun Larsen, who was substituted off in second-half stoppage time, helped the Denmark U21s to a 1-0 victory in Finland, while Dan-Axel Zagadou played the full 90 minutes as the France U21s claimed a 5-3 victory in a exhilarating match in Slovakia. The other Black & Yellow to feature for his national team at the start of this week was Achraf Hakimi, whose Morocco side lost 3-2 at home to Gabon on Tuesday evening.