September 10th World Cup Qualifying Roundup – Europe

September 11th, 2008 | by: Daryl | Comments(5)

Lively round of games in the European section of World Cup qualifying yesterday. England’s away win over Croatia will grab the headlines, but there were all kinds of other interesting games going on. There was a win for a might minnow, a near embarrassment for Germany and some great late drama in Portugal.

Read on for a quick roundup with video highlights of all the best action.

Let’s start with England’s much hyped trip to Zagreb. It’s been a while since the Three Lions looked like a proper football team, and Croatia had never lost a qualifier at home. Ever. But a Theo Walcott hat-trick (plus one from a back in form Wayne Rooney) gave England a 4-1 win that puts them top of Group 6. All the goals should be available over on England WCB, but here’s the Thierry Henry-esque finish that sealed 19 year old Walcott’s hat trick:

Cue all the questions about whether England are back. The answer is: not after just one win, but at least it seems like they’re going to be a lot less dull to watch than in the last few years.

England’s surprise away win wasn’t the biggest upset of the day. Not even close. That honour goes to little Luxembourg, who destroyed any suggestions that the so-called minnows don’t belong in the qualifying stages by beating Switzerland 2-1. In Switzerland. Here’s footage of Jeff Strasser’s 28th minute free kick and Fons Leweck’s 86th minute winner:

And check out the look on new Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld’s face. He just saw horrible headlines in all four official Swiss languages.

But the game with easily the most dramatic finish was Denmark’s 3-2 away win over Portugal. They went into the last ten minutes with Portugal winning 1-0, only for Denmark to equalize in the 84th, Portugal to retake the lead in 86th, and Denmark to equalize again in the 90th and win 3-2 in the 92nd. All the goals and a more detailed explanation can be seen here, but this is what Daniel Jensen’s (deflected) late late winner looked like:

Elsewhere Raymond Domenech redeemed himself after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Austria by beating Serbia 2-1. The decision to shift Henry out to the left wing and the inclusion of Yoann Gourcuff as the attacking mid went down well on France WCB. Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka got the goals.

And Italy continued their 100% (if not 100% convincing) start to World Cup qualifying under Marcelo Lippi with an expected 2-0 win over Georgia. Daniele De Rossi got both goals, his first one being the more eye catching:

In other unsurprising victory news, Euro champs Spain made short work of Armenia, with two goals goals from David Villa (the middle two) and one each from Joan Capdevila and Marcos Senna:

Last but by no means least, Finland nearly pulled out a win against Germany but had to settle for a 3-3 draw. Three times Finland took the lead at home, but three times Miroslave Klose equalized, the last time in the 83rd minute.

Elsewhere, Scotland finally got going and took some pressure of manager George Burley with a 2-1 win away to Iceland, Northern Ireland’s continued their awesome home form by holding Czech Republic 0-0 at Windsor Park, Netherlands opened with a 2-1 win over Macedonia, Wales young side didn’t have enough to stop Russia winning 2-1.

Luxembrourg weren’t the only mighty minnows last night, though they were the only ones to take a victory. Faroe Islands held Romania to a narrow 1-0 win, Andorra scored against Belarus in a 3-1 defeat and San Marino only let in two against Poland.

Here are all last night’s results from the Euro section of World Cup qualifying:

Spain 4:0 Armenia
Kazakhstan 1:3 Ukraine
Lithuania 2:0 Austria
Latvia 0:2 Greece
Azerbaijan 0:0 Liechtenstein
Turkey 1:1 Belgium
Croatia 1:4 England
France 2:1 Serbia
Italy 2:0 Georgia
Portugal 2:3 Denmark
Albania 3:0 Malta
Slovenia 2:1 Slovakia
Finland 3:3 Germany
Switzerland 1:2 Luxembourg
Moldova 1:2 Israel
San Marino 0:2 Poland
Macedonia FYR 1:2 Netherlands
Sweden 2:1 Hungary
Bosnia-Herzegovina 7:0 Estonia
Northern Ireland 0:0 Czech Republic
Russia 2:1 Wales
Andorra 1:3 Belarus
Montenegro 0:0 Republic of Ireland
Iceland 1:2 Scotland
Faroe Islands 0:1 Romania

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