Action in autumn

The Caribbean qualifiers leading to the Gold Cup kicked off in October with Puerto Rico hosting and winning group A which saw Anguilla (the lowest Caribbean team in the rankings) pull off a shock 2-1 win against St Martin.

Anguilla score in shock win

There were 2 rounds of European qualifiers in which Serbia were humiliated at home 3-1 by Estonia and had their next match abandoned after only 6 minutes due to crowd trouble in Italy. Armenia celebrated a 3-1 home victory over Slovakia and the Russians returned from Ireland with a 3-2 success while Wales lost 1-0 at home to Bulgaria. Turkey were stunned 1-0 in Azerbaijan and the Montenegrins are yet to concede a goal in their group after holding England to a goalless draw at Wembley.
The African qualifiers produced several upsets with the Central African Republic’s 2-0 home triumph over Algeria and Egypt’s 1-0 defeat in Niger among the biggest. Benin enjoyed a 3-0 win in Rwanda while DR Congo drew 1-1 in Cameroon and Sudan held their Ghanaian hosts to a goalless draw. In other African matches Nigeria lost 1-0 in Guinea and Ethiopia won by a single goal away to Madagascar.
A host of friendly matches took place in Asia with Bahrain having mixed fortunes, winning 3-1 in Kuwait before losing 4-2 at home to Uzbekistan. The UAE lost 2-0 to the visiting Angolans while Vietnam were defeated 3-1 in India and the Philippines drew 1-1 away to Taiwan.

First steps for Europe and Africa

For most European and African nations early September marked the start of their continental qualifiers and saw many changes in the Ziaian world rankings. France who seemed to be sinking deeper into the abyss after losing 1-0 at home to Belarus received a boost with a 2-0 win in Bosnia & Herzegovina 4 days later, while Croatia who had got off to a good start winning 3-0 in Latvia were held to a goalless home draw by Greece who had started with a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Georgia. Northern Ireland shocked Slovenia with a goal in Maribor while Slovakia achieved the same result in Russia. Lithuania and Montenegro also enjoyed 1-0 wins away to the Czech Republic and Bulgaria respectively. Finland suffered a 2-0 loss in Moldova while a thriller between Portugal and Cyprus ended in a 4-4 draw in Guimaraes and England earned a 3-1 win in Switzerland.
In Africa Sierra Leone picked up a 1-1 draw in Egypt while the Central African Republic returned from Morocco with a goalless draw and Malawi shared 4 goals with their hosts Tunisia. Guinea Bissau defeated their visitors from Kenya 1-0 while Angola lost 3-0 in Uganda and Congo surrendered 2-0 in Sudan. Senegal enjoyed a 4-2 win in DR Congo and Guinea won 4-1 in Ethiopia while Burundi drew 1-1 in Benin and Tanzania returned from Algeria with a creditable 1-1 draw.
In friendly matches world champions Spain were thumped 4-1 in Argentina while Mexico lost 2-1 at home to Ecuador and Iran won 2-0 in China and 1-0 in South Korea.