Spain and Netherlands win, Italy’s game abandoned for crowd trouble
World champions Spain, maintained their perfect start in the Euro 2012 qualifiers alongside World cup runners up Netherlands and younger Germans. For Italy things got out of hand in their match with Serbia.
Just after the opening six minutes of the game between Italy and Serbia the match had to be abandoned in Genoa due to serious crowd trouble. Craig Thomson officiating on the night was forced to call off the game after Serbian fans started to throw flares
at the Italian spectators and on to the pitch.
The Serbian fans were in a very hostile mood and booed their own goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic, who retaliated and pulled out of the match. If this was not enough to make the situation bad, things got worse after Italian fans jeered during the Serbian national
anthem prior to the start.
The referee did the right thing by calling off the game as the security of the players should be the priority for the organizing committee and officials. Serbian football federation could face severe consequences due to this incident. They might be forced
to play behind closed doors not allowing any supporter to come in to watch the game. This will bring a financial crisis on the other team and they might face a penalty of point deduction, which could possibly end their dream of making it to Euro 2010.
Meanwhile, other European top guns registered victories but they had to fight for earning all three points, where as England had to settle for a frustrating draw.
Villa equals Raul’s record as Spain defeats Scotland.
World and European champions, Spain, continue to dominate their opponents as they have been doing so for the past three years but they were given a scare by minnows, Scotland.
Scotland’s manager, who had earlier received severe criticism for his strategy of playing without a striker, silenced his critics as his side scored two goals against the World champions but ultimately Spain proved to be too good.
A boring first half was brought to life when David scored from a spot-kick to become the highest goal scorer in the country’s history with his 45th goal, one more than Raul’s previous record. Andre Iniesta, who scored the winning goal in the Final,
doubled the lead in the second half.
But Spain were stunned as Scotland got back on level terms within no time, and Spain gave away a two goal lead. Fernando Llorente’s came on as a substitute and scored to seal a thrilling win for the Spanish side.
Vicente Del Bosque, Spain’s coach, who has also worked with Raul at Real Madrid, was full of praise for David Villa. He admitted that Villa was the key player in their World Cup winning campaign and he is the best striker in the World at the moment.
Furthermore, Netherlands just like Spain kept their hundred percent start intact with an over-whelming 4-1 victory over Sweden. Former Ajax goal machine Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay both scored a brace to take Netherlands to the top of their group.
In the meantime, Germany defeated Kazakhastan 3-0 to gain all three points thanks to an all-round superb display by Lukas Podolski. The former Bayern Munich striker first assisted his international strike partner, Miroslav Klose, for a goal and then set
up another for Mario Gomez and completed a perfect night by getting his name on the score sheet as well.
France continues to impress after their World Cup debacle and their chances of automatically qualifying from their group looks to be brighter after defeating Luxembourg 2-0.
France have bounced back after their shock defeat against Belarus earlier. The win was powered by Karim Bezema and Younn Gourcuff, both of whom scored on the night.
The best game of this week’s qualifiers was undoubtedly Austria taking on Belgium, which proved to be goal fiesta as both sides earned a hard fought 4-4 draw.
Elsewhere, Portugal edged past Iceland 3-1, Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal after four minutes laid the foundation for victory.
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