Kanetastic England, Belgium punch big; Italy held
Milan, Sept. 3: Italy finally came back down to earth a bit in their first game as European champion.
Less than two months after winning the European Championship at Wembley, Italy were held to a 1-1 draw by Bulgaria in World Cup qualifying on Thursday.
Spain lost 1-2 away to Sweden to drop to second place in Group ‘B’, while England and Belgium earned big wins to consolidate their group leads.
Federico Chiesa gave Italy the lead after a dominant start but the Azzurri conceded their first goal in the qualifiers when Atanas Iliev levelled at the end of the first half.
Aleksander Isak and Viktor Claesson starred for Sweden as they stifled Spain 2-1 and leapfrog the visitors for first place in group ‘B’.
Kosovo moved up to third after beating Georgia 1-0.
Meanwhile, Romelu Lukaku scored twice as top-ranked Belgium came from an early goal down to beat Estonia 5-2 and stay atop group ‘E’.
With 10 points from four games, Belgium retained a three-point lead in the group ahead of the Czech Republic, which defeated Belarus 1-0. Belgium have scored 17 goals in the campaign. Wales and Belarus are on three points while Estonia is pointless.
England weathered a hostile atmosphere to beat Hungary 4-0 in their first game since losing the Euro final in Group ‘I’. Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane and Harry Maguire scored in a 14-minute flurry and Declan Rice added a second-half goal.
Poland are second after beating Albania 4-1 while Andorra earned their first win by beating San Marino 2-0. In group ‘J’ Germany beat Liechtenstein 2-0 to move into second in the group, a point behind surprise leader Armenia.
Armenia dropped their first points of the campaign with a 0-0 draw against North Macedonia.
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