Mon, Mar 28, 2005 - Page 19 News List

Switzerland gives France trouble

WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS The Swiss held the French to a scoreless draw while England shut out Northern Ireland 4-0, as Israel and Ireland ended in a 1-1 draw

AP , LONDONAP, LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

Second-place Croatia beat Iceland 4-0 in another Group 8 match. Niko Kovac scored two goals, and Joe Simunic and Dado Prso added the others.

Michalis Kapsis, Zissis Vryzas, and Stelios Giannakopoulos scored a goal each to lead European champion Greece over Georgia 3-1. Shota Arveladze scored for Georgia.

Greece won its third straight Group 2 qualifier after starting the campaign with a loss and two draws.

Also in the group, Emre Belozoglu and an own-goal from Elvin Bequiri gave Turkey a 2-0 win over Albania.

Denmark won its first match in three qualifiers with a 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan. Peter Moeller scored twice and Christian Poulsen got the other.

Ukraine leads the group with 14 points, followed by Greece with 11, Denmark and Turkey with nine, Albania with six, Georgia with five and Kazakhstan with zero.

In Group 7, Emile Mpenza scored twice and Koen Daerden and Thomas Buffel added a goal each to give Belgium a 4-1 win over Bosnia-Herzogovina. It was Belgium's first win in four European World Cup qualifying matches, but it trails group leader Serbia-Montenegro by six points.

Argentina rallied from a goal down to overcome Bolivia 2-1, and Colombia left Venezuela with a fifth draw in South American World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

In a late game, Chile tied with Uruguay in a match played in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

Argentina scored twice in seven minutes of the second half to erase Bolivia's opening goal four minutes after halftime.

Bolivia stunned the competition leader when Jose Alfredo Castillo connected with Danner Pachi's left cross in the 49th minute for the home side's first goal in three qualifiers.

But Luciano Figueroa equalized, also on a header, in the 57th, and moments later Luciano Galetti got the winning goal on a low shot to the right of goalkeeper Leo Fernandez.

Argentina's lead stretched to 25 points from 12 games, while Bolivia remained last with 10 points.

In Maracaibo, Colombia conceded a fifth draw in 12 games and improved only one spot in the standings to a provisional fifth, while Venezuela rose to sixth, trailing only on goal differential.

Both teams had numerous scoring opportunities, particularly in the final minutes when Colombia goalkeeper Miguel Calero held off a flurry of shots before 35,000 at Jose Encarnacion Romero Stadium.

This story has been viewed 2585 times.
TOP top