After the summer break, competitive international
football returned with European qualifiers and World Cup qualifiers in Africa
and Asia. In Africa the qualifiers began with a shock in the first round as
Djibouti celebrated a 2-1 victory over Eswatini and held them to a goalless
draw in the away match to progress to the next round while a 3-1 win for Sudan
in Chad was enough to take them through after a 0-0 home draw. Zimbabwe also made
it to the next round despite being stunned 1-0 in Somalia, as did Equatorial
Guinea who could only draw 1-1 at home to South Sudan in their first match. Angola
paved their path to the next round with a 1-0 win in Gambia.
The Asian World Cup qualifiers entered the group stage
where Palestine enjoyed a 2-0 win at home to Uzbekistan but were embarrassed
2-1 in Singapore the following week. The shock of the round was produced by
Nepal who won 2-0 in Taiwan while Mongolia stunned their visitors from Myanmar
1-0 and Asian champions Qatar where held to a goalless draw at home to India.
Lebanon lost 2-0 in North Korea and Kyrgyzstan fell to a single goal in
Tajikistan while Australia were 3-0 winners in Kuwait and Malaysia defeated
Indonesia 3-2 on their travels.
In the Euro 2020 qualifiers Croatia slaughtered Slovakia
4-0 on the road, but the Slovaks salvaged some pride days later with a 2-1 win
away to Hungary while Croatia were held to a 1-1 draw in Azerbaijan. The
Netherlands returned from Germany with a 4-2 victory that took them to the top of
the Ziaian rankings and Greece were held 1-1 at home to little Liechtenstein
while Bosnia & Herzegovina were beaten 4-2 in Armenia for whom Henrikh
Mikhitaryan scored twice. Poland lost 2-0 in Slovenia while Portugal triumphed
4-2 in Serbia and Estonia were 2-1 losers at home to Belarus. The Czech
Republic picked up a 3-0 win in Montenegro while Albania enjoyed a 4-2 home win
against Iceland.
In the Concacaf Nations League Panama suffered a shock
2-0 defeat at home to Bermuda.
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