Saturday, September 4, 2021
Austria with bad defeat
France did not qualify
World Cup qualification reaches its halfway point. The French have not yet been defeated, but they are determined. The Netherlands, on the other hand, has an exclamation point. The Austrians, on the other hand, are badly attacked by talented Israelis. Already qualified?
World champion France stumbled to the top of the table, with Louis van Gaal scoring his first victory, and Austria suffering an almost impossible defeat in Israel: the World Cup qualifier has reached its half-time with multiple matches. The French, in particular, are again disappointed that the reigning champions in Ukraine have not beaten 1-1 (0-1) and are top of Group D.
Ukraine equalized through Mikola Shaparenko (44th) and Anthony Martial (50th). With 9 points, France are now ahead of Finland and Ukraine (both 5) – but the Finns have played two games less. They won 1-0 (0-0) against Kazakhstan thanks to a goal from Bayer Leverkusen’s Joel Bozanbalov.
Van Gogh had his first win of the second game after returning as Netherlands’ Bond coach. The key 4-0 (1-0) win over Montenegro was the fall of Memphis Debay (38th, penalty / 62nd), Georgino Vijaldam (70th) and Cody Gacpo (76th). Orange is now second in Group G with -10 points, however, to level the score with Norway Holland-led Norway, who scored 2-0 (1-0) in Latvia. Both are behind Turkey (11 points) in a 2-0 (0-0) win over ineffective football dwarf Gibraltar.
Israel turns four chances into four goals
A bitter evening in Austria Israel. German coach Franco Fota’s team lost 2: 5 (1: 3) to return to fourth place in Group F. Leading player Denmark (15 points) took a fifth victory in their fifth game and won 1-0 (0-0) without a look against the Faroe Islands outside.
Israel are now in second place (10) and Scotland (8) are in third place, beating Moldova 1-0 (1-0). Only the Austrians are behind. Manor Solomon (5th), Hoffenheim’s Munas Tappur (20th), Eran Zahawi (33rd / 90th) and Shaun Weissman (58th) scored for Israel, who had to shoot only four times for the first four wins. Austria, on the other hand, eventually had 19 shots on target and had several top chances, but only thanks to Hoffenheim’s Christoph Bamkardner (42nd) and former Bremen’s Marco Arnadovic (55th).
In Group A, Serbia beat Luxembourg 4-1 (2-0), now leading the Portuguese (both 10) with equal points. Portugal won 3-1 (2-0) in a Test match against Qatar on Saturday. At the top of Group H, Russia and Croatia are still in balance (both 10). Russia won 2-0 (1-0) in Cyprus and Croatia won 1-0 (0-0) in Slovakia.