European champion Greece lost 2-1 to Albania and France was held 0-0 at home by Israel in World Cup qualifying surprises on Saturday.
The Albanians, on a collective US$500,000 bonus to beat their neighbor, raced to a 2-0 lead through Edvin Murati and Ardian Aliaj in the first 12 minutes in Tirana.
Stelios Giannakopoulos replied before halftime but Otto Rehhagel's team, which beat Portugal (twice), France and the Czech Republic and drew with Spain en route to winning Euro 2004, couldn't score again.
France couldn't score at all against modest Israel at the scene of its 1998 World Cup triumph.
With Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram and Bixente Lizarazu retired, the French are rebuilding under a new coach Raymond Domenech. But the result underlines the decline of a team which lost its world and European titles in two years.
"We lacked a little spark," said Domenech.
England threw away a 2-0 lead in Vienna as Austria hit back with two goals in two minutes for a 2-2 draw.
A cleverly worked free kick inside the Austrian area led to a tap-in by Frank Lampard, and English teammate Steven Gerrard powered in a first-time shot from 25-yards.
But Roland Kollmann pulled a goal back with a stunning left-footed free kick in the 71st, and Austria captain Andreas Ivanshitz drove home a long-range shot that went under goalkeeper David James.
Blundering England even took off Gerrard by mistake.
"It was a bit of a misunderstanding," the Liverpool midfielder said. "Wayne Bridge had a kick on his Achilles and I signaled to the bench to change him -- and they changed me. I thought the manager wanted me to come off but he thought I had signaled to come off. It's one of those things, I can't do anything about it."
Hometown star Luca Toni came off the bench to score Italy's winner in a 2-1 beating of Norway in Palermo.
Toni, whose 30 goals last season led Palermo to the Serie B title and its first appearance in Serie A in 32 years, fired the winner 10 minutes from the end after Daniele De Rossi had canceled out a first-minute strike by Norway's John Carew.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored four goals and Fredrik Ljungberg added two as Sweden romped to a 7-0 victory at Malta, and Johan Vonlanthen and Alexandre Rey scored three goals each as Switzerland routed the Faeroe Islands 6-0. Slovenia's Mile Acimovic also had a hat trick in a 3-0 win over Moldova.
Elsewhere, Argentina leapfrogged defending champion Brazil by beating Peru 3-1 in South American qualifying. Both sides played the second half with 10 men from red cards, and after Peru equalized in the 61st, Fabricio Coloccini headed a spectacular game-winner four minutes later. Brazil can regain the lead against Colombia on Sunday.
In Africa qualifying, Zambia player-coach Kalusha Bwalya scored the only goal to beat Liberia 1-0 in second-half injury time, a double milestone marking his 50th goal in his 100th international. Zambia also rose to the top of Group 1.
Kenya rebounded from the end of its FIFA-imposed suspension by winning its opening qualifier 3-2 over Malawi in Nairobi. Kenya was suspended for two months until August because the government had taken over the country's national soccer federation, contravening FIFA rules. Kenya hads to postpone three qualifiers, which it will rearrange.
Morocco topped Group 5 when it drew Tunisia 1-1 with a late Youssef Safri equalizer.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
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CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
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