LONDON, (Reuters) – Europe’s top teams took important steps towards next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil with qualifying victories yesterday, notably world champions Spain who scored a hugely significant 1-0 win over France in Paris.
Netherlands, Germany and Italy also picked up three points but England, fourth in the world rankings, were held 1-1 in Montenegro after a bright start in which they scored first.
After a weekend of speculation about Spain losing their way on the road to Rio after a 1-1 home draw with Finland on Friday, their victory at the Stade de France steadied the nerves and put them back on top with 11 points, one more than France.
Pedro scored the only goal in the 58th minute after a scramble in front of goal and a desperate atetempt to keep the ball out by home keeper Hugo Lloris while France finished with 10 men after Paul Pogba was sent off 12 minutes from time.
Spain are now unbeaten in their last 50 World Cup qualifiers since March 1993 and coach Vicente Del Bosque was a happy man.
“This is a very important three points. It helps support the conviction we have in our ideas,” he told Spanish TV. “Everyone has doubts at times.
“When they went down to ten men in theory it should have been easier for us, but this is when we perhaps had the most problems. The team played like men today.”
Netherlands steamed to a sixth straight qualifying win in this campaign – and a 14th overall – when they thumped Romania 4-0 in Amsterdam with Robin van Persie scoring twice.
The Dutch moved on to 18 points, seven clear at the top of Group D, after second-placed Hungary drew 1-1 with Turkey.
BEST MATCH
“This was the best match under my management so far,” Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal told reporters.
“We executed our game plan much better than we did on Friday (in a 3-0 win over Estonia). We only played sloppily in the final quarter of the first half and that resulted in their sole chance of the match.”
Germany also moved a step closer to the finals when they followed up Friday’s 3-0 win in Kazakhstan with a 4-1 victory over the same opposition in Nuremburg to climb to 16 points and open up an eight-point gap at the top of Group C.
Sweden, who did not play, Austria and Ireland are all on eight points after the latter drew 2-2 with the Austrians in Dublin after the visitors salvaged a point with an equaliser from David Alaba in the 92nd minute.