Italy push past Brazil and Spain with record 36th game undefeated
Italy set an international record of 36 games unbeaten yesterday as Germany and Spain returned to the top of their World Cup qualifying groups.
Though European champions Italy were held 0-0 at Switzerland, Germany and Spain were joined by England and Poland in routing lowranked opponents.
Top-ranked Belgium were lifted by Romelu Lukaku celebrating his 100th international by scoring his 67th goal to ease past the Czech Republic 3-0.
Brazil lost their share of the men’s world record held jointly with Spain and Italy at 35 games unbeaten. Brazil’s run in 1993-96 included a World Cup title, Spain’s in 2007-09
spanned a European title and Italy’s dates to September 2018.
A rare failure for Italy to score was compounded by penalty specialist Jorginho failing from the spot again in the 53rd minute. He missed in the shootout at the Euro 2020 final against England.
The newly crowned Uefa Men’s Player of the Year’s signature trick of a slow run and jump did not deceive Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who quickly stepped to his right, then dived to his left to save.
Jorginho joined Kylian Mbappe, in a Euro 2020 shootout in June, and Sergio Ramos, twice in a Nations League game in the same Basel stadium last November, in having penalties saved by Sommer.
Sommer was also captaining Switzerland, who were missing Granit Xhaka, who tested positive for Covid19 last week.
“We’ve had a chaotic week with lots of absences, with lots of injuries,” said Sommer, who helped extend his country’s unbeaten home record to 20 games.
Spain beat visiting Georgia 4-0 to take top spot back from Sweden who did not play yesterday.
Italy missed a chance to take tighter control of their group by drawing again three days after being held 1-1 at home to Bulgaria.
Belgium and the Czech Republic were both eliminated in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals but looked in a separate class yesterday.
Lukaku finished with a smart, powerful shot in the eighth minute, another established star Eden Hazard added to it in the 41st and emerging prospect Alexis Saelemaekers of AC Milan got a third in the 65th.
Gareth Bale scored two penalties and then completed his hat-trick with a stoppage-time goal as Wales won 3-2 in Belarus.
England got a fifth straight win in the group by beating Andorra 4-0. It was England’s first game at Wembley Stadium since crowd disorder marred the Euro 2020 final against Italy. England scored three goals in the last 12 minutes, with Jesse Lingard bagging a brace.
Germany routed Group J leader Armenia 6-0 to take back the top spot surrendered in March when they lost at home to North Macedonia.