First modification: 25/03/2021 – 00:16Last modification: 25/03/2021 – 00:15
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Paris (AFP)
Start of the qualifying phase for Qatar-2022 in the European zone and first surprises: France, the current world champion, did not go beyond the 1-1 draw this Wednesday in Paris against Ukraine and the Netherlands lost 4-2 during their visit to Turkey.
If just over six months ago Ukraine scored seven goals on their last visit to Paris, this Wednesday they started a valuable draw at the Stade de France against the 2018 World Cup champion.
The ‘Bleus’ dominated the whole game and got ahead on the scoreboard with a goal from Antoine Griezmann in the first half (19), but they paid dearly for a defensive error shortly before game time, which Ukraine took advantage of to tie, in a goal against Presnel Kimpembe (57).
– The champion opens with a draw –
“We should have had a bigger advantage in the first half because we had chances, but then it was more difficult, without so much play,” French coach Didier Deschamps explained after the game, playing down the setback.
“Qualifying is long and not a long lazy river, it never has been,” he said.
Also with a draw, the other match of the first day ended in group D, with a 2-2 between Finland and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Helsinki.
Worse was the current world runner-up Croatia, who debuted with a 1-0 defeat in Slovenia, with both from Sandri Lovric.
Russia took advantage of the Croatian stumble to position themselves as the first leader of Group H with their 3-1 victory in Malta, while Slovakia did not go beyond a goalless draw in Cyprus (0-0).
– The ‘Oranje’ falls again in Turkey –
With defeat, the Netherlands also made their debut, losing 4-2 in Istanbul in a match in which the hero was Lille striker Burak Yilmaz, who scored three goals.
“We are very disappointed with the result and also with the way it happened,” Dutch coach Frank De Boer told NOS television.
The Netherlands, absent from Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, have undergone a profound generational renewal, but this setback complicates their path in a key in which Norway and Montenegro won as visitors in Gibraltar (3-0) and Latvia (2-1), respectively.
In the match played in Gibraltar, the Norwegian team jumped onto the pitch with T-shirts denouncing the situation of migrant workers in Qatar, many of them in the works for the World Cup.
“Human Rights, on and off the field of play”. That was the message that could be read on the shirts of Norway, a country in which 55% of its citizens, according to a recent survey, defend that their team should boycott the appointment in Qatar, where according to the British newspaper The Guardian they have 6,500 workers have died since the World Cup was awarded to this country in 2010.
More complicated than expected was the victory (1-0) of Portugal, the current European champion, against modest Azerbaijan, number 108 in the FIFA rankings.
– Portugal for the minimum –
In the image of its star Cristiano Ronaldo, who tried many times and always without success, Portugal was very misguided in attack and ended up winning with a solitary goal … scored an own goal by defender Maksim Medvedev (38).
“We have won with a goal against, it is true, but we deserved to win by a larger score,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos after a match played in Turin due to satire restrictions due to the pandemic.
Portugal will travel to Serbia on Saturday, the other leader of the A key after beating Ireland 3-2 in Belgrade.
The selection that resolved its debut with the greatest solvency was Belgium, number one in the ranking, defeating Wales 3-1 in Leuven.
The Welsh took the lead shortly after starting, with a goal from Harry Wilson (10), but the Belgians turned the score around with goals from Kevin de Bruyne (22) and Thorgan Hazard (28) and Romelu Lukaku sentenced a penalty in the final stretch (73).
“It was important to start with a victory at home. We were forced to win, it is important to start well in qualifying. We got scared in the first fifteen minutes, but we recovered well,” celebrated midfielder Thorgan Hazard, one of the great protagonists of the night.
© 2021 AFP
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