Recapping Euro 2016 Qualifiers Week of September 8
Only two months have passed since Germany lifted the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but already qualifying is underway to find the 23 teams that will join France at the 2016 European Championships.
Extending the tournament to 24 teams will give a lot of the smaller nations a huge chance of qualification, and the opening weekend of results has certainly thrown up an interesting selection of winners and losers.
The top two from each group will automatically qualify for the tournament in France, with the third-place sides going into the playoffs. The key to qualification will be the points that countries pick up away from home. There are some difficult trips in European football, and if they want to qualify, teams need to keep their home record intact and pick up some points on their travels.
There have been some surprising results this weekend, with some smaller nations causing some shocks.
Here are the winners and losers from the opening Euro 2016 qualification games.
Group I
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The biggest winners and losers of the weekend come from the same game in this group.
In Albania's wildest dreams, they could have maybe prayed for a fourth-place finish behind Portugal, Serbia and Denmark in Group I, but they have shaken things up in Matchday 1.
Slavia Prague's Bekim Balaj stunned the Estadio Municipal de Aveiro on Sunday night, scoring the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute. Portugal couldn't respond without talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.
With Albania scoring with their only shot on target, the side led by Giovanni De Biase now have a genuine chance of challenging for third place.
Borussia Dortmund's Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave Armenia a shock 1-0 lead away from home against Denmark, but his 49th-minute goal was wiped out by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
The 19-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder was only making his third appearance for his country but brought the sides level on 65 minutes. Then it was left to veteran Thomas Kahlenberg to win the game with 10 minutes left.
Group B
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Before Tuesday night, Andorra had failed to win a single point in any qualifying campaign, and against Wales they were nine minutes away from making history.
Ildefons Lima gave the home side an amazing lead after six minutes when he tucked away an early penalty.
The tiny home nation held off the away side until the 22nd minute, when Gareth Bale levelled the scores. Many expected Chris Coleman’s side to go on and score a couple, but the home side held firm.
Wales then won a late free-kick outside the box, and it was left to Welsh hero Bale to step up and be counted. The Real Madrid winger didn’t disappoint, powering the free-kick over the wall and past Ferran Pol in the Andorran net.
So close yet so far away for the plucky Andorrans, but this will give them a great boost of confidence going into the other group games.
Wales may have ended up winners in Group B on the night but will need to up their performances if they want to finish in the top two this campaign.
The real winners on Tuesday night were definitely Cyprus. Pambos Christodoulou’s side came back from a goal down to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1 in Zenica.
Vedad Ibisevic got the nod to play up top beside Edin Dzeko and repaid Safet Susic’s faith by giving the home side the lead after six minutes.
That was as good as it got for the home side, as coming off their first appearance at the World Cup they were definitely suffering a Brazilian hangover. Cypriot No. 9 Dimitris Christofi fired back with two goals, giving the away side a 2-1 lead with 17 minutes to go.
Cyprus would hold on for a wonderful victory which gave them a great start to the qualifying process. They take on Israel and Wales next month and will hope to qualify for their first-ever tournament in two years’ time.
Group F
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Hungary were big losers on Sunday evening and maybe one of the biggest losers over the first matchday of qualifiers.
Despite taking the lead in the 75th minute through Tamas Priskin, the home side collapsed with nine minutes to go and could only watch as a plucky, hardworking Northern Irish side stunned the home crowd and took the 2-1 victory to give their campaign an amazing start.
Substitute Niall McGinn levelled the game in the 81st minute, then Kyle Lafferty's night-long effort came to fruition with minutes remaining as he scrambled the winner over the line.
As expected, Finland won away at the Faroe Islands; Riku Riski scored twice to spare the away side's blushes. They had gone 1-0 down in the first half, but Riski's double and Roman Eremenko's late third saved the Finnish side from embarrassment.
Ciprian Marica was both hero and villain for Romania on Sunday. His 10th-minute penalty away in Greece was enough to win all three points, but he also picked up his second yellow in the 53rd minute and left his side with 10 men for the last 37 minutes.
Luckily for the striker, his teammates managed to hold on, but they will have to play without him when they host Hungary next month. Northern Ireland have the chance to build on their result when they welcome the Faroes to Windsor Park.
Group E
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Estonia will be looking to go one further this time round. After reaching the playoffs for qualification to the World Cup, they will have France in their sights.
They got off to a great start on Monday. They were the only home side to win in Group E, as Ats Purje popped up with four minutes to go to see his side past Slovenia 1-0.
Lithuania will be happy to pick up the 2-0 win away at San Marino but may have expected more goals against the minnows, which could be crucial when it comes to deciding third place this campaign.
Without doubt, England were the biggest winners in Group E. Managed Roy Hodgson came under a lot of criticism for his side's tepid display against Norway at Wembley, but they looked assured, well-organised and hungry at the St. Jakob-Park, and their good play paid off in the second half as they scored twice to down Switzerland in their own backyard.
New Arsenal signing Danny Welbeck got both goals as the Three Lions hit the Swiss Guard on the counter-attack for a wonderful start to qualifying. Despite only being one game into the campaign, it would take a collapse of epic proportions to see Hodgson's side not qualify from this position.
Group A
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Iceland are the surprise leaders of Group A after the first round of games. Lars Lagerback’s side ran out 3-0 winners at home to Fatih Terim’s Turkey.
Jon Dadhi Boovarsson opened the scoring after 18 minutes, and they held that lead to half-time. They were then given a huge boost on the hour when Omer Toprak picked up two yellow cards in four minutes, giving his side a huge disadvantage.
Iceland used the extra man well and finished off the away side with goals in the 76th and 77th minutes through Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ajax's Kolbeinn Sigthorsson.
Turkey will now need positive results against Czech Republic and Latvia next month. Latvia will be disappointed to leave Kazakhstan with only a point, but one or two sides will struggle when they travel to the Astana Arena this campaign.
After missing out on the World Cup in Brazil, Pavel Vrba’s Czech Republic side got off to a wonderful start in Prague against the third-place side at this summer’s tournament.
Borek Dockal’s wonderful right-foot finish gave the home side a surprise lead over the Netherlands, but Guus Hiddink’s first game in charge was put back on track when Stefan de Vrij headed home from Daley Blind’s second-half cross.
However, the home side would come out huge winners on Tuesday night when Vaclav Pilar pounced on poor defending to score the winner in injury time.
These are three fantastic points for the home side. They now have two away games, so three unexpected points at home could make all the difference.
Group H
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The opening games of Group H went according to expectations. Bulgaria, Croatia and Italy all picked up victories, leaving Azerbaijan, Malta and Norway looking for their first points in the campaign.
In all fairness, only Norway would have hoped for a better outcome.
Ilijan Mitsanski opened the scoring for Bulgaria after 14 minutes, with Ventsislav Hristov sealing the winner on 87 minutes after Dima Nazarov had equalised for Azerbaijan nine minutes after the break.
Italy are trying to put the disappointment of the World Cup behind them and started the qualification campaign well with a 2-0 win over Norway.
Twenty-three-year-old Simone Zaza is the new star of the Azzurri and got his first of the campaign, scoring in the 16th minute. Leonardo Bonucci got the second after the break, and Norway had no response for Antonio Conte’s side.
Croatia scored twice in the second half to see off Malta 2-0. Not a vintage performance from Luka Modric and Co., but enough to start the qualifying process with a win.
The biggest fixture in the next round of games will see Bulgaria host Croatia; the winner will have a great advantage to start the campaign.
Group G
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It was the expected beginning from the sides in Group G, as Russia and Montenegro made victorious starts to their qualifying campaign. Russia opened the scoring early, taking away the nerves of playing the minnows of Liechtenstein.
Sergei Ignashevich's free-kick took a wicked deflection off Martin Buchel before beating Peter Jehle, who could only watch the ball hit the back of the net. The away side did well to keep Fabio Capello's side at bay, but Jehle would be beaten three more times before the final whistle.
Montenegro were expected to beat Moldova at the Stadion Pod Goricom and did with goals from Mirko Vucinic and Zarko Tomasevic.
Both Russia and Montenegro lead the group after Austria and Sweden played out a draw on Monday night. David Alaba gave the home side the lead from the spot after seven minutes, but it only took Erkan Zengin five minutes to level the sides, and the Eskisehirspor midfielder's goal was enough to take a share of the points.
The results give Russia a huge chance to take control of the group as they travel to Sweden next month. If they can take all three points off Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Co. they will be confident of finishing in one of the top two positions.
Group C
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Spain may have won a routine game in Macedonia, but the other results in Group C certainly didn’t follow expectations.
Five different players found the net as Spain beat Macedonia 5-1, with Valencia’s Paco Alcacer scoring his first goal for his country.
There was a huge surprise in Kiev as Slovakia recorded a wonderful 1-0 victory over Ukraine, with Napoli’s Marek Hamsik setting up Robert Mak for the 17th-minute winner. It was great for them to get their first win before they take on Spain and Belarus next month.
The win puts Slovakia in an even better position knowing Belarus could only manage a draw away at Luxembourg. The away side went behind after 42 minutes through Lars Gerson and had to wait until the last 15 minutes before Stanislav Dragun saved a point for the away side.
Group C is now wide-open (well, not first place), as you have Slovakia, Belarus and Ukraine fighting for two spots and probably shouldn’t rule out Luxembourg and Macedonia at this stage.
Group D
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Scotland arrived in Dortmund full of optimism and rediscovered belief. They may have been taking on the world champions, but the fans believe that under Gordon Strachan they have the best chance of qualifying for an international tournament in 18 years.
It was a brave and inspiring performance from Strachan's men, but in the end, the world champions had too much for the Scots. Thomas Muller's first-half header opened the scoring after 18 minutes, and Scotland were lucky to only be a goal down going into the break.
Then the unthinkable happened. Watford's Ikechi Anya broke free down the left and composed himself before placing his shot beyond Manuel Neuer, much to the player's delight.
"Lastly I SCORED PAST MANUEL NEUER 😱!!!! WOWWWW I CAN'T EVEN DO THAT ON FIFA 😂💯🙌⚽️🙏 #Godisgreat
— Ikechi (@IkechiAnya) September 8, 2014"
Germany then put their unit into third gear and capitalised on some schoolboy defending from Scotland to take the lead a mere four minutes after Anya's goal.
The only way that Scotland can be classed as winners from this weekend's games is if they take the positives from this result and pick up victories against Georgia and Poland next month.
Germany rolls on and will be heavy favourites to finish top of this group, and it's hard to look past them.
It took Poland 11 minutes to find a way past new boys Gibraltar and only managed one in the first half, but in the end the experience of the Polish side came through for a 7-0 victory. Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski hit four, with Rennes winger Kamil Grosicki adding a double.
The other game in the group saw the Republic of Ireland stumble towards three points despite taking the lead. Tornike Okriashvili's wonderful 38th-minute strike ruled out Aiden McGeady's opener, but it was the Everton midfielder who stole the headlines. It looked like Martin O'Neill would have to accept a point in the opening game, but McGeady's 90th-minute goal gave Ireland all three point, perhaps undeservedly.
The Irish now have to take on expected whipping boys Gibraltar, then the mighty Germans; two completely different games.
