Kevin Kuranyi scored two goals on Saturday to put Germany in control of its European Championship qualifying group after a 2-1 victory at the Czech Republic, and Nicolas Anelka kept France on course with the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Lithuania.
Israel held struggling England to a 0-0 draw and European champion Greece lost its lead and tumbled 4-1 to visiting Turkey.
In a meeting of two clubs level on points at the top of Group D, Germany moved three ahead of the Czechs as Kuranyi scored with two headers in Prague. Milan Baros replied for the Czechs, who are now tied for second with Ireland, which edged Wales 1-0.
Not considered for last year's World Cup by France coach Raymond Domenech, Anelka scored a solo goal in the 73rd minute in Vilnius, dribbling through the middle and shooting in from outside the area.
The victory kept the World Cup runners-up level on points with Scotland at the top of Group B, while Ukraine moved ahead of idle Italy and into third place.
The Scots beat Georgia 2-1 at Hampden Park on Craig Beattie's 89th-minute goal and Ukraine posted a routine 2-0 victory at the Faeroe Islands with strikes by Volodymyr Yezerskiy in the 20th minute and Oleg Gusiev in the 57th.
The results mean that Italy now has five points to make up on Scotland and France and is two behind Ukraine. The World Cup champions will host Scotland on Wednesday.
England stays level on points with Israel but five behind group leader Croatia, which beat Macedonia 2-1, and three behind Russia, which won 2-0 at Estonia.
Croatia came from behind to defeat Macedonia, which went ahead through Goce Sedloski in the 38th minute. Darijo Srna equalized in 58th and, after Sedloski had been sent off for a second yellow card in the 68th, Eduardo da Silva scored Croatia's winner with two minutes to go.
Two goals in 12 second-half minutes by Alexander Kerzhakov gave Russia a 2-0 victory at Estonia.
Croatia now has 13 points, followed by Russia with 11, England and Israel with eight and Macedonia with seven.
Sotirios Kyrgiakos gave Greece a fifth-minute lead against the Turks in Athens, but the visitors hit back with strikes by Tuncay Sanli, Gorgkhan Unal, Tumer Metin and Gokdeniz Karadeniz and now lead the Group C standings by three points.
Poland jumped from third to the top of Group A with a 5-0 victory over Azerbaijan while Serbia was upset 2-1 at Kazakhstan.
Jacek Bak, Dariusz Dudka, Wojciech Lobodzinski, Jacek Krzynowek and Przemyslaw Kazmierczak each scored to give Poland its fourth consecutive qualifying victory, including wins over Group A rivals Portugal and Belgium.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals on Saturday to give Portugal a 4-0 win over Belgium in a European Championship qualifying match.
Ronaldo made it 2-0 in the 55th minute, two minutes after Nuno Gomes gave the hosts the lead. Ricardo Quaresma also scored.
"We created lots of opportunities in the first half but failed to score, and in the second we showed more guts and were fortunate to net goals in the first minutes," Ronaldo said.
Kairat Ashirbekov scored in the 47th minute. Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev tallied in the 61st to put Kazakhstan ahead in Almaty before Nikola Zigic replied in the 68th.
Zigic was sent off in injury time as the Serbs slipped to third.
The Netherlands stayed at the top of Group G despite being held to a 0-0 draw by visiting Romania.
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