Spain fail to Finnish it

Finlands late equaliser holds World Champions to 1-1 draw in qualifiers

Finland grabbed a late goal to earn a surprise 1-1 draw in Spain on Friday,punishing the champions ahead of next weeks table-topping clash with France in World Cup Group I qualifying. Striker Teemu Pukki scored from a counter-attack in the 79th minute,his teams first attempt on target after they had withstood waves of attacks from Spain.

Defender Sergio Ramos,wearing the captain8217;s armband on his 100th appearance,had broken the deadlock with a header from a corner just after halftime but Vicente del Bosques side struggled to make their dominance count.

But there were wins for England,Germany,France and Netherlands. England scored their biggest victory for 26 years when they triumphed 8-0 in San Marino,Germany won 3-0 in Kazakhstan,France beat Georgia 3-1 in Paris and Netherlands scored three second-half goals to beat Estonia 3-0 in Amsterdam. The rapidly maturing Belgium team took another step towards next year8217;s finals in Brazil when they won 2-0 albeit with a nervy performance in Macedonia to stay top of Group A,level on points with Croatia who won a passionately intense derby against bitter Balkan rivals Serbia 2-0 in Zagreb.

Higuain stars for Argentina

Striker Gonzalo Higuain scored twice as Argentina romped to a 3-0 home win over Venezuela to stay firmly in charge of the South American World Cup qualifiers on Friday.

Lionel Messi,who was in scintillating form and created a string of chances,converted a penalty between Higuain8217;s goals as Argentina cemented top position of the group with 23 points from 10 matches,four points ahead of Colombia. Other teams with their eyes on Rio who stumbled included Portugal,who trailed 3-1 in Israel before recovering for a 3-3 draw and Sweden who were held to a 0-0 draw by Ireland.

EUROPEAN RESULTS

Group A: Scotland 1 2 Wales,Macedonia 0 2 Belgium,Croatia 2 0 Serbia; Group B: Bulgaria 6 0 Malta,Czech Republic 0 3 Denmark; Group C: Sweden 0 0 Ireland,Austria 6 0 Faroe Islands Kazakhstan 0 3 Germany; Group D: Hungary 2 2 Romania,Andorra 0 2 Turkey,Netherlands 3 0 Estonia; Group F: Luxembourg 0 0 Azerbaijan Israel 3 3 Portugal; Group G: Bosnia 3 1 Greece,Liechtenstein 1 Latvia 1,Slovakia 1 1 Lithuania; Group H: Poland 1 3 Ukraine,Moldova 0 1 Montenegro,San Marino 0 8 England; Group I:Spain 1 1 Finland,France 3 1 Georgia