World Cup 2010 Qualifiers September 6
On a busy day of World Cup 2010 qualifiers around the world, there were mixed results for teams from the British Isles. England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland all won, while Scotland and Northern Ireland lost tough matches in the heat of Eastern Europe.
England struggled to overcome the minnows of Andora 2-0 in Barcelona, Wales edged 10-man Azerbaijan 1-0 in Cardiff, and Ireland beat war-affected Georgia in neutral Mainz.
Germany and Portugal showed England how it's done with the smaller teams by thrashing Liechtenstein 6-0 and Malta 4-0 away respectively and there were hard-fought wins for Italy, Spain and Ukraine in their opening matches.
The biggest shocks were losses for France 3-1 away to Austria in Vienna and a 3-0 drubbing for Romania at home to Lithuania.
In Asia there were impressive away wins for Japan and North Korea in the Middle East while Saudi Arabia and Iran shared the points in Riyadh with a 1-1 draw.
In South America, Argentina drew 1-1 at home to group leaders Paraguay in Buenos Aires, a resurgent Uruguay beat Chile 1-0 away and Ecuador beat Bolivia 3-1 at home.
In the CONCACAF zone, the USA won an historic match 1-0 in Havana against Cuba and Mexico made no mistakes with an impressive 3-0 home win over Jamaica as Sven Goran Eriksson's team top their group.
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