Germany and Italy continued their leisurely stroll toward the Euro 2012 finals with wins which underlined their domination of their groups, but France dropped unexpected points by drawing in Belarus.
Three-time winners Germany thanked a Mario Gomez double as they floored neighboring Austria 2-1 in Vienna and Die Mannschaft now stand seven points clear of Belgium in Group A with a game in hand, while the Austrians will have to find alternative entertainment next summer.
In Group C, Italy were all business in swatting Estonia 3-0, Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini all on target for the Azzurri.
Photo: Reuters
Italy stayed five points clear of Slovenia, 2-0 winners in the Faroe Islands, with a game in hand, and need only win two of their last four matches to guarantee progress to the finals.
Italy coach Cesare Prandlli had told his players they would have to work, remembering a tough 2-1 win eked out in Tallinn in September last year.
However, once Rossi had fired in the opener midway through the opening period it was all one-way traffic.
Photo: AFP
“No games are ever easy, it becomes easy when you play like we did tonight,” Prandelli said. “After you score a goal it becomes much easier to keep the ball and we did that tonight.
If Germany and Italy are cantering toward the line as a berth for the finals in Ukraine and Poland beckon, France still have work to do.
France coach Laurent Blanc was clearly unimpressed as his charges labored to a 1-1 draw against Belarus in Minsk.
The point still keeps Les Bleus — champions in 1984 and 2000 — four points clear of the eastern Europeans — but they are making heavy weather of their passage.
Eric Abidal returned after a frantic 10 weeks first saw him have surgery on a liver tumor then regain his place in the Barcelona side in time to lift the European Cup at Wembley.
However, his return to the national team was marked chiefly by the left back putting the ball through his own net in the 20th minute.
Florent Malouda swiftly leveled, but France could not find the win which would effectively have sewn up the group.
Blanc, who came under fire recently over alleged proposals to introduce race quotas at youth level before an internal investigation cleared him, was frustrated.
“It was a disappointing match, especially in the first half. We lacked a bit of freshness — I don’t think we deserved to win tonight,” Blanc said. “They’ve taken four points off us in two matches and that’s a lot — yet they are not a better team than us. We came for three points and we didn’t get them.”
In other action on Friday, Sweden thumped Moldova 4-1 away, but are struggling to catch the Dutch, who have a perfect record after six matches.
Although the Scandinavians have a match in hand they have six points to make up.
Croatia gained a potentially crucial 2-1 win in Group F as two goals inside three minutes from first Mario Mandzukic then Nikola Kalinic saw off Georgia, who had taken the lead through Jaba Kankava after 17 minutes.
In Group I, there was a rare win for Liechtenstein, who beat Lithuania 2-0 with goals from Philippe Erne and Michele Polverino, the win moving the tiny hosts to within a point both of the Lithuanians and Scotland.
Holders Spain lead the way in the group with a perfect 15 points from five games.
In Group A action, Kazakhstan downed Azerbaijan 2-1, while Belgium and Turkey played to a 1-all draw.
In Group D, Romania blanked Bosnia 3-0 and in Group E, Finland defeated San Marino 1-0.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but