UEFA MatchesWales 0 - 2 BelgiumIceland 2 - 0 NorwayAndorra 0 - 5 HungaryAlbania 3 - 1 CyprusSlovenia 0 - 2 SwitzerlandLatvia 1 - 2 GreeceMontenegro 2 - 2 PolandCroatia 1 - 0 MacedoniaLithuania 1 – 1 SlovakiaMalta 0 - 1 ArmeniaEstonia 0 - 2 RomaniaGeorgia 1 - 0 BelarusKazakhstan 1 - 2 Rep of IrelandAzerbaijan 1 - 1 IsraelLONDON - England, Germany, France and the Netherlands all started the long road to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil with victories but Italy stumbled out of the blocks when the European qualifying campaign began on Friday.World champions Spain do not begin their bid to reach the finals until Tuesday, but apart from the Italians, held to a 2-2 draw in Group B in Bulgaria, there were no major problems for the continent’s big guns.England won their opening Group H match 5-0 in Moldova, while Germany strolled to a relatively modest 3-0 Group C win over the Faroe Islands.A first-half goal from Abou Diaby gave France a winning 1-0 start in their Group I campaign against Finland in Helsinki, while the Netherlands beat Turkey 2-0 in Amsterdam in Group D with Robin van Persie and Luciano Narsingh, who hit the second in stoppage time, scoring for the Dutch.Italy, who have been world champions four times, had a topsy-turvy start in Sofia before drawing 2-2 with Bulgaria with Pablo Osvaldo scoring both their goals to put them 2-1 up after they conceded first.Georgi Milanov equalised for the home side with 24 minutes to play and Italy could not find a winner.Two Italians who had better nights than their national team were Fabio Capello and Giovanni Trapattoni, the managers of Russia and Ireland respectively.Ireland’s bid to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2002 began with a dramatic win as two goals in the final two minutes from Robbie Keane, who netted a penalty, and a volley from Kevin Doyle gave Trapattoni’s men a 2-1 win in Kazakhstan in Group C.Capello’s Russia also started with a win, with goals from Viktor Faizulin and Roman Shirokov, who scored from the spot, giving them a 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland in Moscow.The highest scorers of the night were Bosnia, who began their quest for a first appearance in the finals by thrashing Liechtenstein 8-1 in Vaduz in Group G.Edin Dzeko, who scored a hat-trick, became Bosnia’s all-time leading scorer with 25 goals.Portugal did not have things all their own way either before winning 2-1 in Luxembourg after the unfancied hosts took a shock lead through Portuguese-born Daniel da Mota after 13 minutes.A total of 22 qualifiers were played on Friday with two more on Saturday before the second round of European matches next Tuesday which sees world champions Spain start their campaign in Tbilisi against Georgia who will take confidence from their 1-0 defeat of Belarus.
