The Malta Independent on Sunday
Lukaku saves Belgium against ten-man Greece
● Dismal night for the Dutch ● European champions Portugal stay close to Swiss
In group A, Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud scored two goals to keep France on top of the group with a 3-1 win over Luxembourg.
Sweden moved to second place with an easy 4-0 win over Belarus and The Netherlands fell to fourth as they were surprisingly beaten by Bulgaria 2-0.
In Luxembourg Giroud put the French ahead on 28 minutes, but six minutes later Luxembourg drew level with an Aurelien Joachim penalty.
Another penalty put the French back on top on 37 minutes with Antoine Griezmann scoring from the spot.
On 77 minutes Olivier Giroud sealed the issue for France with the third goal.
In Sofia Bulgaria dented the Dutch’s hopes beating them 2-0 with two goals inside the first twenty minutes, both scored by Spas Delev.
In Stockholm Sweden easily beat Belarus 4-0 to move to second place in the group.
The Swedes found the going hard in the first half and only forged ahead thanks to an Emil Forsberg 19th minutes penalty.
Four minutes into the second half the same Forsberg doubled the score for Sweden, and further goals from Marcus Berg and Isaac Kiese Thelin completed Belarus’ misery.
In Group B, leaders Switzerland obtained their fifth consecutive victory to remain on top with maximum points.
Yesterday they beat Latvia 1-0 with the winner coming from a Josip Drmic header half way through the second half.
Portugal remained on the heels of the Swiss with a comfortable 3-0 win against Hungary in Lisbon.
Portugal built a two-goal cushion by the end of the first half with two goals in the space of four minutes.
The european champions had a very slow start and rarely tested the Hungarian goalkeeper. They forged ahead in their fist danger on 32 minutes when Andre Silva scored from close range following a good Guerreiro run on the left flank.
Four minutes later captain Cristiano Ronaldo scored a great goal from the edge of the area beating Gulacsi with a grounder on the first post.
Ronaldo scored the third goal with a superb freekick on 65 minutes.
In the other match of the group, minnows Andorra gained their first point of the competition with a home scoreless draw against Faroe Islands. For the Faroes this was the fifth point gained so far in the group.
For Andorra it was the first point in qualifying for the Pyrenees mountain principality, population 80,000, since a scoreless draw with Finland in 2005, 11 years of nothing but losing, a run of 58 competitive defeats.
Faroe Islands finished with 10 men after Joan Edmundsson was booked a second time with 15 minutes to play.
In Group H Belgium remained on top of the group with a last gasp equaliser against ten-man Greece.
Belgium who were still with maximum points before this match, were jolted at the start of the second half when Mitroglou put the former european champions in front.
Greece were reduced to ten men on 65 minutes Tachtsidis received a second booking.
Greece however held on to their precious lead and only surrendered to Lukaku’s last gasp equaliser.
Bosnia had little difficulty in beating Gibraltar 5-0 to gain the third victory in the group and remain on course for qualification.
Vedad Ibisevic scored a brace in the first half, and in the second period Bosnia added further goals from Avdija Vrsajevic on 52 minutes, Edin Visca four minutes later, with Ermin Bicakcic ending the goal festival with the fifth one on 90 minutes.
In another match from this group Cyprus and Estonia fired blanks to earn a point in a low profile scoreless draw.