Former champions England, France and Italy all avoided potentially dangerous away-day traps to keep their World Cup campaigns firmly on track on Wednesday with narrow victories.
England defeated Poland 2-1, France saw off the Faroes 2-0 while Italy came away from Moldova with a 1-0 victory on a packed night of qualifiers across Europe.
PHOTO: AFP
In Chorzow, Jermain Defoe celebrated his first international start with a superbly taken goal as England hauled their World Cup qualifying campaign out of the mire with a gritty 2-1 win over Poland.
PHOTO: AFP
Lambasted after throwing away a two-goal lead against Austria in their opening Group Six match on Saturday, England went into the match knowing another shambolic display could cost Sven-Goran Eriksson his job as head coach.
Mature performance
Their response was a mature performance, Eriksson's men declining to panic when Maciej Zurawski cancelled out Defoe's first half effort shortly after the break.
They went on to clinch a deserved victory courtesy of Akradiusz Glowacki knocking the ball past his own goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek.
"Defoe couldn't have done much better," said Eriksson. "He created chances and played very well. He's a great talent and he will always score goals."
Goalkeeper David James was left on the bench to reflect on the blunder that had gifted Austria their equalizer on Saturday to be replaced by Paul Robinson.
However, whether or not the England players enjoyed their victory will remain unknown as they boycotted a scheduled post-match press conference in protest at their treatment in the media since Saturday.
Austria's 2-0 home win over Azerbaijan puts them top of the table with only the eight group winners in Europe guaranteed places in the finals in Germany in 2006.
France coach Raymond Domenech said his team had to show more commitment after their 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands in Torshavn which was marred by the expulsion of captain Patrick Vieria for diving.
Goals either side of half-time from Ludovic Giuly and Djibril Cisse handed France the vital three points to keep the wheels on their campaign after a 0-0 draw with Israel on Saturday.
But Domenech was far from happy.
"In future we have to show more determination in these type of games," said the coach.
"To progress in this type of competition we have to be more committed in attack, in defense. This is different to a league match or a Champions League game."
Italy's campaign gathered momentum despite a scrappy 1-0 win away to Group Five rivals Moldova.
The Italians wasted a hatful of chances and in the end were thankful to captain Alessandro Del Piero's clinical first-half finish and some superb goalkeeping by Gianluigi Buffon.
Del Piero, recalled to the starting line-up after his surprise omission from the squad for last month's friendly away to Iceland, led the front line superbly, the perfect response to those critics who had written off the inconsistent 29-year-old star.
Del Piero back
Moldova were always in with a chance of snatching a point until the 77th minute when Serguei Dadu was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Italy coach Marcello Lippi said the goal would work wonders for Del Piero's flagging confidence.
"It was a great goal, important for Italy and for him -- he needed a boost," said the former Juventus coach.
Pierre van Hooijdonk ensured Marco van Basten enjoyed his first competitive match as coach of the Netherlands, producing both goals in their 2-0 win over the Czech Republic in Amsterdam.
The result not only gave the Dutch their first points on the road to Germany but also a degree of revenge three months after the Czechs defeated them in the group stages of Euro 2004.
"That was a good effort. We've trained well, we've talked a lot this week and the players did what I asked of them," said Van Basten.
"The 11 players formed a true team."
Elsewhere, Switzerland and Ireland battled to a 1-1 draw in Basel in Group Four to join France and Israel on four points from two matches.
Clinton Morrison gave the Republic, who welcomed back skipper Roy Keane, the lead but Hakan Yakin deservedly levelled for the Swiss.
Spain held to draw
In Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina held Spain to a surprise 1-1 draw.
Spain took the lead in the 66th minute when Vicente Rodrigez burst in from the right to score but seven minutes later Elvir Bolic calmly equalized.
In Glasgow, Scotland were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Slovenia which piled further pressure on manager Berti Vogts.
Despite a promising start to the game with early chances for James McFadden and Darren Fletcher, they were forced to hang on in the second half with Slovenia unlucky not to win the match.
German World Cup winner Vogts was hoping to pick up all three points to get the qualifying campaign off to a flying start and to ease the criticism directed towards him, but as the final whistle blew, there were boos from the 33,000 crowd.
There was plenty of action in Cardiff where Northern Ireland and Wales, both in England's group, drew 2-2 in a game which saw three players sent off.
Asia qualifiers
Newly-crowned Asian champions Japan stayed on course for the 2006 World Cup in convincing fashion while South Korea and China were made to struggle in Wednesday's qualifying matches.
Japan preserved their 100 percent record in Group 3 with a 4-0 victory over India while the Koreans recovered from 1-0 down and an early sending-off to beat Vietnam 2-1.
A second-half strike from Li Jinyu was enough to steer 10-man China past bottom-placed Malaysia as they tightened their grip on Group 4.
The results leave all three Asian heavyweights on course to progress to the final round of qualifying next year as group winners.
Iran also stayed in contention when goals in the last ten minutes from Ali Riza and Ali Daei gave them a 2-0 win over Jordan in Amman and top spot in Group One.
North Korea also romped to the top of Group 5 courtesy of a 4-1 win over Thailand, overtaking United Arab Emirates who crashed to a surprise defeat against Yemen.
In Calcutta India, still smarting from their 7-0 drubbing in the first leg in June, held the Japanese until the last minute of the first half when Takayuki Suzuki opened the scoring.
A late free-kick from Lee Chun-soo spared South Korea's blushes as the World Cup 2002 semifinalists recovered from a goal down and a first-half red card to beat Vietnam 2-1.
Cha Du-ri's sending-off and a series of defensive blunders made for uncomfortable first-half viewing for recently appointed coach Jo Bonfrere but worse was to come as Park Jae-hong directed a Tai Em shot into his own net soon after the break.
Asian Cup runners-up China also failed to convince in a laborious display against pointless Malaysia, who fluffed a series of chances and hit the crossbar in the dying seconds.
In other results, Bahrain maintained their lead of Group 6 with a 2-1 away win over Kyrgyzstan, Qatar handed tiny Laos a 6-1 thrashing while Lebanon beat Maldives 5-2 and Oman won 2-0 in Singapore.
The Iraqis, fresh from their semifinals heroics in Athens, kept up the pressure on Uzbekistan in Asian Group 2 with a convincing win inspired by Salih Sadir, who netted the opener of a first-half double after just three minutes.
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