This is a good summary of yesterday's games in Europe.
Pencil in Poland and soon Italy and Spain.
sports.yahoo.com
European World Cup qualifying matches round-up
By Mike Collett
LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - England scored one of the most
staggering results in the recent history of international soccer when they
crushed their arch-rivals Germany 5-1 in Munich in a World Cup Group
Nine qualifier on Saturday.
The result not only re-wrote the record books, but more importantly from
England's point of view, put them back in charge of their own destiny as
far as qualifying for next year's finals is concerned.
If England win their two remaining matches and maintain the superior goal
difference they have now established over Germany, they will win the
group and Germany will have to go into the play-offs which was assumed
to be England's fate ever since Germany beat them 1-0 at Wembley 11
months ago.
A hat-trick from Michael Owen spearheaded England's win, their first in
Germany since 1965 and only the second time in 64 years that Germany
had ever lost a World Cup qualifier.
Poland also had a day to remember, beating Norway 3-0 in Group Five
to qualify for the finals for the first time since 1986.
Russia's chance of ensuring their place in the finals slipped when they lost
2-1 in Slovenia in a Group One match, which, coupled with Yugoslavia's
2-1 win over Switzerland in Basle, threw that group wide open again.
Italy also failed to book their ticket to the finals by only drawing 0-0 in
Lithuania where a victory would have sealed their place.
Group-by-group round up of Saturday's matches:
Group One
Russia (17 points) stay top despite losing 2-1 in Slovenia where a last
minute goal from the penalty spot from Milenko Acimovic allowed them
to narrow the gap to just one point.
Yugoslavia's 2-1 win over Switzerland -- who had goalscorer Hakan
Yakin later sent off -- takes them onto 15 points and opens up a
three-way race for the top two places with Switzerland (11 points)
probably left with too much to do.
Group Two
Ireland's memorable 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Dublin guaranteed
the Irish (21 points) second place in the group at worst and all but
eliminated the Dutch (14).
Jason McAteer scored the winner after 68 minutes, nine minutes after
Ireland defender Gary Kelly was sent off for a tackle from behind on
Marc Overmars.
Portugal's 7-1 win over Andorra included an eight-minute hat-trick in the
first-half from substitute Nuno Gomes who also scored a fourth in the
second half and leaves Portugal (18) and Ireland poised to take the top
two places.
Group Three
Bulgaria's 2-0 win over Malta moved them up from third to first place on
17 points with two matches to play, one point ahead of deposed leaders
Denmark who played poorly and were held to a 1-1 draw by Northern
Ireland in Copenhagen.
Iceland, who have never qualified for the finals of a major competition
scored one of their greatest-ever results with a 3-1 win over the Czech
Republic who had striker Jan Koller sent off six minutes from halftime.
Bulgaria (17), Denmark (16), Czech Republic (14) and Iceland (13) are
all in contention for the top two places with two matches each to come.
Group Four
Sweden's 2-1 win over Macedonia and Turkey's 1-0 win over Slovakia
mean that they have wrapped up the top two positions between them
with Wednesday's visit by the Swedes to Turkey likely to decide who
finishes top.
Henrik Larsson (28) and Patrik Andersson (33) gave Sweden their
success while Hakan Sukur's 34th minute strike gave Turkey the points in
Bratislava.
Moldova won their first international for six years, beating Azerbaijan 2-0
to leapfrog over Azerbaijan who are now bottom of the standings.
Group Five
Poland qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986
when they beat Norway 3-0 to clinch first place. Ukraine won 2-0 in
Belarus to keep alive their hopes of finishing second.
Eliminated Wales and Armenia drew 0-0 in Cardiff.
Poland's afternoon was marred before and during the match when
baton-wielding police clashed with Polish hooligans in the stadium after
dozens of fans jumped a fence separating spectator sectors and began
fighting among themselves. Norwegian fans were not involved.
Group Six
Scotland's 0-0 draw with Croatia in Glasgow in the only game in the
group left Belgium top with 14 points from six matches, with Croatia and
Scotland level on 12 points. Croatia play San Marino on Wednesday
while Scotland travel to Belgium.
Group Seven
Spain all but secured their place in the finals with a 4-0 win over Austria
with three goals in the last 10 minutes in Valencia to move on to 17
points.
Austria can, mathematically at least, still catch them, but despite drawing
0-0 draw with Bosnia in Sarajevo, Israel are the more likely to finish
second. That draw took them above Austria into second place on goal
difference and they are at home to Austria on October 7.
Group Eight
Lithuania postponed Italy's celebrations by holding Giovanni Trapattoni's
men to a 0-0 draw in Kaunas which means Italy will have to wait until
October 6 to wrap up the group as expected. Gerorgia beat Hungary 3-1
to effectively end Hungarian hopes, but Romania, who did not play,
should still finish second.
Group Nine
England's remarkable 5-1 win over Germany in Munich means that
England, not Germany now have much the better chance of qualifying
automatically. A hat-trick from Michael Owen and a goal each from his
Liverpool team mates Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey took England to
13 points from six matches, three points behind Germany but with a game
in hand and a better goal difference. England will go top of the group if
they beat Albania as expected on Wednesday.
Finland beat the bottom-placed Albanians 2-0 in Tirana to move up to
third but with virtually no possibility of qualifying. |
