ENGLAND:
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he will not pick Yaya Toure until the midfielder’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, apologises for criticising the decision to omit the 33-year-old from the starting line-up.
Borussia Dortmund make it 17 goals in their last three games with a 5-1 win at Wolfsburg.
The niece of Spanish Football Association president Angel Maria Villar is found dead after she was kidnapped in Mexico. Maria Villar Galaz had been missing since September 13. n the first round of European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, there were some notable results for a number of newly appointed coaches, as well as embarrassment for recently crowned continental champions Portugal.
For their opening group game against Switzerland, in Basle, the Portuguese were without injured captain Cristiano Ronaldo for their first competitive game since beating France in the Final of Euro 96.
First-half goals from Breel Embolo, a header following Rui Patricio’s parry of a Ricardo Rodriguez free-kick, and a curling shot from Admir Mehmedi into the top-right corner were enough to give the Swiss a comfortable victory, although Nani did strike a post for the visitors in the 82nd minute with a header.
Portugal’s defeat was their first in 15 competitive games under coach Fernando Santos, who took over in the autumn of 2014 after Paulo Bento was fired following a 1-0 loss at home to Albania in the side’s opening Euro qualifier.
Elsewhere in Europe, there were wins for the new men in charge of Spain, Italy, Belgium and England.
Sam Allardyce’s first game as manager of England proved to be his last, although the 1-0 win in Slovakia, thanks to Adam Lallana’s injury-time goal, meant he left the job with a 100 per cent record. The victory in Trnava came in what is arguably the most difficult fixture of England’s qualifying campaign, and caretaker boss Gareth Southgate will now take charge of the next four games: qualifiers against Malta, Slovenia and Scotland, plus a friendly with Spain.
Spain’s new coach Julen Lopetegui oversaw the 8-0 thrashing of Liechtenstein in his first competitive game in charge, with a hat-trick for David Silva and two apiece for Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas was omitted from Lopetegui’s first squad, while their were recalls for Juan Mata and Paco Alcacer, and first call-ups for Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio and West Ham United keeper Adrian.
Spain, with two goals from David Silva, also beat Belgium 2-0 in a friendly in Brussels, where Roberto Martinez took charge for the first time, along with his surprise choice as assistant, Thierry Henry. Five days later, Romelu Lukaku scored twice as Les Diables Rouges won 3-0 in Cyprus in a World Cup qualifier, with Yannick Ferreira Carrasco adding the third goal.
Italy kicked off a new era under Giampiero Ventura with a 3-1 friendly loss to France in Bari but won their opening World Cup qualifier, in Israel, in impressive style, triumphing 3-1 with goals from Graziano Pelle, Antonio Candreva and Ciro Immobile.
Other newcomers were not so successful, as Karel Jarolim’s Czech Republic drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland in Prague, Christoph Daum’s Romania were held 1-1 by Montenegro in Cluj, Sweden drew 1-1 under Janne Andersson with Holland in Solna, and Andriy Shevchenko’s Ukraine drew 1-1 with Iceland in Kiev.
Other Euro 2016 finalists who suffered disappointing results included Hungary, who could only draw 0-0 away to Faroe Islands, and France, who were held to a goalless draw in Belarus.
Kosovo made history with their first-ever World Cup