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Greece upsets Spain, Vogts stalls Germany
Spain tumbled to a 1-0 loss at home to Greece on Saturday to leave their Euro 2004 qualifying group wide open.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:48 AM IST
Read Time:3 min
London:
Spain tumbled to a 1-0 loss at home to Greece on Saturday to leave their Euro 2004 qualifying group wide open. Stelios Yiannacopoulos scored the only goal three minutes before half time in Zaragoza and Spain, instead of moving four points clear of its rivals, now is just one ahead of Ukraine and Greece. Ukraine edged Armenia 4-3 after twice falling behind with Andriy Shevchenko scoring twice and Serhiy Fedorov netting a last minute winner. Seven years after leading Germany to its last European Championship triumph at Wembley, Berti Vogts snatched two qualifying points from his countrymen when his Scotland team earned a 1-1 tie at Hampden Park. After Fredi Bobic had headed Germany into a 23rd minute lead, Scotland hit back with a Kenny Miller equalizer 20 minutes from the end to set up the curious sight of Vogts cheering a goal against his fellow Germans. It was a point that Scotland fully deserved against a German lineup that failed to produce the form that took it to last year's World Cup final. "It was a great performance from my team," said Vogts, whose team is level on points with Rudi Voeller's men but behind on goal difference and has played a game more. The result means that Germany and Scotland have eight points, while idle Lithuania has seven. The Lithuanians, who have taken two points off the Germans and three off the Scots, host Iceland on Wednesday when the Germans go to the Faeroe Islands. Iceland moved into contention by edging the Faeroe Islands 2-1 in Reykjavik and has six points. The games were among 19 qualifying matches being played across Europe on Saturday. The Netherlands scored a 2-0 victory at Belarus to go three points clear of the Czech Republic in Group 3. Barcelona stars Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert netted the goals, but the star-studded Dutch didn't break the Belarussian resistance until the 62nd minute. Turkey jumped back above England with a 1-0 victory over Slovakia in Bratislava, the only goal coming from Kahveci Nihat in the 12th minute. The result gives the Turks 12 points from five games while England, which hosts Slovakia on Wednesday, has 10 from four. In the struggle to catch runaway Group 1 leader and defending champion France, third place Israel was held 0-0 by second place Slovenia. The game was played at Antalya in Turkey because the Israelis are unable to play their home matches on their own turf. Some 2,000 Israel fans made the journey to the predominantly Muslim nation for the game. A fourth minute goal by Chelsea's Jesper Groenkjaer gave Denmark a 1-0 victory over Norway and now the two Scandinavian nations are tied on 10 points at the top of Group 2. Ireland needed a last minute own goal to edge Albania 2-1 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, and stay in contention in Group 10. Group leader Switzerland threw away a two goal lead after Alexander Frei scored in the 14th and 16th minutes and was held 2-2 at home by Russia which replied with two strikes by Sergei Ignashevitch. Mattias Jonson scored three and Marcus Allback two as Sweden romped to a 6-0 victory over San Marino in Group 4. Group leader Latvia lost 3-1 at Hungary and now is just two points ahead with Poland back in fourth and just three behind. In Group 9, Finland improved its chances of qualifying by scoring a 3-0 victory over Serbia-Montenegro in Helsinki. Group 8 leader Bulgaria was held 2-2 at home by Belgium, which twice had the lead in Sofia. The result maintained the Bulgarians' three point lead but this time Estonia, which downed Andorra 2-0, is the chasing team with eight points with the Belgians sliding to fourth behind idle Croatia. Austria's soccer demise continued with a 1-0 loss at Moldova, which hadn't scored a single Group 3 point. The Austrians are falling further behind the Czechs and the Netherlands and have little chance of qualifying. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
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