Highlights: Portugal and France qualify at the last
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
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Portugal and France clinched their places at the FIFA World Cup, leaving Switzerland and Sweden settling for the play-offs, with Greece also one step closer to the finals after the group stage concluded.
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- Portugal beat Switzerland to qualify on goal difference
- France reach finals; Sweden edge Netherlands to join Swiss in play-offs
- Greece win takes them to play-offs and confirms Slovakia's elimination
- Watch highlights of tonight's games
Qualified (finals draw 1 December): Belgium, England, France, Germany (holders), Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia (hosts), Serbia, Spain
Play-offs (draw 17 October): Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland
Group A
Didier Deschamps' side had won five of their six previous home qualifiers and knew another victory would assure them of top spot and a place in Russia. Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud both struck inside the opening 33 minutes to rubber-stamp Les Bleus' qualification, though Belarus pushed the hosts hard.
Captain Arjen Robben converted a penalty and scored with a tremendous long-range strike to ensure the Dutch ended their campaign on a positive note, but they had left themselves far too much to do to qualify. The Oranje needed a seven-goal win to finish second ahead of Sweden.
Olivier Thill put Luxembourg – who climbed off the bottom of the group ahead of Belarus with this point – ahead with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area, Ivaylo Chochev's second-half header giving Bulgaria a share of the spoils
Group B
Ever since Switzerland beat recently-crowned Portugal 2-0 on 6 September last year, the group had been heading towards this rematch in Lisbon with both teams winning every other fixture. Portugal knew a win would ensure qualification on goal difference and had a stroke of luck late in the first half when a low cross from the left ricocheted in off Johan Djourou. The lead was doubled on 57 minutes when a superb team move ended with Bernardo Silva playing the ball across goal for André Silva poke in at the far post. Portugal are off to Russia; Switzerland are in the play-offs.
Hungary had the majority of the play but it took until the 81st minute for Dániel Böde to score the goal that confirmed victory and third place. The Faroe Islands managed nine points in a qualifying group for the first time.
Latvia end three points ahead of bottom side Andorra after this comfortable win including two goals by Valērijs Šabala, whose only other strike in the group was in the 1-0 away victory in the reverse fixture.
Group H
Greece knew a win would confirm their play-off place and took the lead on 32 minutes through Vasilis Torosidis. Kostas Mitroglou added two in the three-minute spell just past the hour and Andreas Gianniotis made it four not long after his 74th-minute introduction.
Estonia 1-2 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Although Bosnia and Herzegovina coud still have finished second before kick-off, their play-off hopes had gone. Izet Hajrovic got the winner with six minutes left having put the visitors ahead just after half-time only for Ilja Antonov to level with a quarter-hour to go.
The Hazard brothers were dominant as Belgium ended the group with 28 from a possible 30 points, bettered only by perfect Germany. Eden got the first and the third while Thorgan managed the second before substitute Romelu Lukaku struck the fourth. That took Belgium to a total of 43 goals, equalling the new record for any European World Cup or UEFA EURO qualifying group set by Germany on Sunday
