Italy, Germany and England, three world champion teams, took a step forward in Europe on their way to the next 2020 Qatar World Cup.
On a first day in which a power like Spain left a 1-1 draw against Greece. Alvaro Morata opened the scoring for Spain, but Anastasios Bakasetas equalized a penalty, promoting a distribution of points that leaves Spain in third position in Group B, led by Sweden, who won this Thursday against Georgia.
In London, without shining but being forceful, England thrashed a humble team like San Marino a 5-0 to go on to lead Group I, ahead of Albania, which beat Andorra 1-0, and Hungary and Poland, which they equaled 3-3.
England boss Gareth Southgate was pleased with his “hungry” looking the team in the 5-0 win over San Marino, claiming in the past players hold looked “stodgy” in such fixtures.
“The whole team were hungry to play. Sometimes these games have been stodgy for us in the past but this team can play slightly differently, we have some creative players who can open teams up.” Southgate said.
“A lot of those chances were created by the good pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch. But also some of the interchange of position and the vision of players.” he added.
Nor did Germany fail against a more powerful rival like Iceland, which they defeated 3-0 in Duisburg. The Germans were placed as the first leaders of Group J of the European qualifying phase to Qatar 2022, with a better goal difference than Romania and Armenia, who beat North Macedonia 3-2 and Liechtenstein 1-0 respectively.
Italy, determined to avoid the trauma of the frustrated qualification to the last World Cup in Russia 2018, got off to a good start in the Qatar 2022 qualifiers by beating Ireland 2-0 in Parma.
