The Hindu : Sport : Walcott on song as England stuns Croatia

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Walcott on song as England stuns Croatia

South American giants Brazil and Argentina held by lower-ranked rivals

— PHOTO: AFP

FINE SHOW: England’s Theo Walcott (right) celebrates with Wes Brown after scoring one of his three goals against Croatia.

LONDON: Teenager Theo Walcott scored a hat-trick as England beat Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb on Wednesday to avenge the two defeats that cost it a place at Euro 2008.

Miroslav Klose also hit a hat-trick for Germany but his goals only salvaged a 3-3 draw for a side which was just seven minutes from losing to Finland for the first time in 85 years.

Most of the other teams expected to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa came through the second round of qualifiers in five days unscathed. World champion Italy beat Georgia 2-0 in Udine and World Cup runner-up France beat Serbia 2-1 in Paris.

European champion Spain maintained its perfect start in Group 5 with a 4-0 win over Armenia in Albacete.

Amazing finale

There was an amazing finale in Lisbon where Denmark beat Portugal 3-2 with four of the five goals in the match scored between the 83rd minute and the second minute of stoppage time.

Nani put Portugal ahead after 42 minutes, Nicklas Bendtner made it 1-1 after 83 minutes before Deco put Portugal ahead with an 86th minute penalty. Christian Poulsen equalised after 89 minutes before Daniel Jensen won it for the Danes in the second minute of stoppage time.

The one major shock was in Zurich where Switzerland lost 2-1 to Luxembourg, ranked 152nd in the world.

Bosnia scored the biggest win of the night, crushing Estonia 7-0, but the Czech Republic was held to a 0-0 draw by Northern Ireland.

The Netherlands opened its campaign with a 2-1 win over Macedonia in Skopje. John Heitinga and Rafael van der Vaart got the goals.

Most impressive

The most impressive performance in the 25 European qualifiers came from England in Zagreb, the scene of a painful 2-0 defeat to Croatia nearly two years ago. Croatia also beat England 3-2 at Wembley in November to end its hopes of reaching the European championship.

Coach Fabio Capello saw his men dominate for most of the match as Walcott justified the Italian’s decision to start him on the right instead of David Beckham, who came on near the end to win his 105th England cap.

Walcott was outstanding and scored his first senior goals as England ended Croatia’s run of 35 unbeaten European and World Cup home qualifiers since it began playing competitive football in 1994.

The win, following Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Andorra, put England top of Group 6, along with Ukraine, which maintained its perfect start with a 3-1 win in Kazakhstan. South American giants Argentina and Brazil both failed to beat lowly-ranked opponents in South American zone qualifiers on Wednesday.

The Argentinians looked set for a first win in five qualifying games after Esteban Cambiasso had put them 1-0 up with eight minutes to go away to struggling Peru.

But deep into injury time the home side hit back to equalise through Johan Fano as he latched on to a long through ball from Juan Vargas.

Brazil, fresh from its 3-0 triumph away to Chile at the weekend, found the goal-trail hard to find at home to bottom-dogs Bolivia and had to settle for a humbling 0-0 draw.

Group leader Paraguay had already posted a 2-0 win over Venezuela on Tuesday and it is now in pole position to qualify with 17 points from eight games, four points clear of Brazil, Argentina and Chile which rebounded with a stunning 4-0 home win over Colombia.

In Wednesday’s final game, Uruguay, played out a disappointing 0-0 home draw against Ecuador.

The results: European zone qualifiers: Sweden bt Hungary 2-1; Albania bt Malta 3-0; Portugal lost to Denmark 2-3; Moldova lost to Israel 1-2; Latvia lost to Greece 0-2; Switzerland lost to Luxembourg 1-2; San Marino lost to Poland 0-2; Slovenia bt Slovakia 2-1; Northern Ireland drew with Czech Republic 0-0; Russia bt Wales 2-1; Azerbaijan drew with Liechtenstein 0-0; Turkey drew with Belgium 1-1; Bosnia-Herzegovina bt Estonia 7-0; Spain bt Armenia 4-0; Kazakhstan lost to Ukraine 1-3; Andorra lost to Belarus 1-3; Croatia lost to England 1-4; Faroe Isles lost to Romania 0-1; Lithuania bt Austria 2-0; France bt Serbia 2-1; Montenegro drew with Republic of Ireland 0-0; Italy bt Georgia 2-0; Macedonia lost to The Netherlands 1-2; Iceland lost to Scotland 1-2;

South America zone qualifiers: Peru drew with Argentina 1-1; Chile bt Colombia 4-0; Uruguay drew with Ecuador 0-0; Brazil drew with Bolivia 0-0; Paraguay bt Venezuela 2-0;

CONCACAF zone qualifiers: U.S. bt Trinidad and Tobago 3-0;

Asian zone qualifiers: Qatar drew with Bahrain 1-1; Uzbekistan lost to Australia 0-1; UAE lost to Saudi Arabia 1-2; North Korea drew with South Korea 1-1; — Agencies

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