European qualifiers for 2010 Football World Cup kick off
September 7, 2008
The European zone of the football World Cup has started its qualifying matches over the weekend. With the World Cup finals in South Africa still 641 days away it signals the first step for many of the big guns of Europe as they begin their quest to hold up the World Cup trophy in 2010.
Some of the surprises to come out of European matchday 1 was the defeat of France at the hands of Austria. The Austrians surprised the 2006 runnersup with a 3-1 win. Following this performance France may be hard pressed to even make the finals in South Africa.
The 2006 winners needed a last minute goal to take the maximum points against Cyprus. It was 1-1 until a 90th minute goal by Antonio di Natale saved the world champions from an inglorious opening to the qualifying campaign.
England playing their first competitive match under new coach Fabio Capello were not that convincing against Andorra. They did however win 2-0 thanks to two second half goals by Ashley Cole. Also in group 6 Ukraine snatched a late win with a 93rd-minute penalty goal to Andriy Shevchenko against Belarus. Croatia looked the most impressive in the group with a 3-0 win against Kazakhstan.
For the full list of European World Cup 2010 qualifying results from the weekend head over to the FIFA website. The next matchday in on 10 September.
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