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.