In the final European qualifiers of the year, several small
nations went into the winter break making history and shaking the world rankings.
The Faroe Islands caused a Greek tragedy with a single goal in Greece that
resulted in the dismissal of manager Claudio Ranieri while Liechtenstein won by
the same result in Moldova, and Estonia, who had earlier stunned Norway 1-0 in
an Oslo friendly, were held to a goalless draw away to Euro Minnows San Marino.
The Norwegians made amends with a single-goal win in Azerbaijan while Malta
returned from Bulgaria with a 1-1 draw and Wales earned a point by shutting out
Belgium in Brussels. Poland continued their good form with 4 goals in Georgia
while the Swiss enjoyed the same result at home to Lithuania and Israel put 3
past their visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations were
completed with several big names missing out on the flight to newly elected hosts
Equatorial Guinea. Nigeria, who won 2-0 in Congo, could only draw 2-2 at home
to South Africa with comeback thanks to an Aluko double and were eliminated as
Congo netted a single goal for 3 points in Sudan. In group B Mali lost 2-0 in
Malawi but reversed the result away to World Cup heroes Algeria to qualify
behind their North African opponents with Malawi missing out after a 0-0 draw
in Ethiopia while in group D Ivory Coast cemented qualification with a 5-1
romping at Sierra Leone. Uganda, who had recently disposed of Ethiopia 3-0 in a
home friendly, hosted and defeated group E winners Ghana 1-0 but lost out on
the last day to Guinea who had earlier tranced Togo 4-1 on the road with a
hat-trick from Soumah, while in group F Zambia paved their way to the finals
with a 1-0 victory in Mozambique. Tunisia topped group G despite firing blanks
in Botswana and were joined by Senegal who were buried Egypt 1-0 in Cairo.
Jamaica won the 2014 Caribbean Cup on home soils with a win
on penalties against Trinidad and Tobago in the final having drawn their
opening match 1-1 with Martinique who had a mixed tournament losing 3-0 to
Haiti before bouncing back to put 2 past Antigua and Barbuda. French Guiana drew
1-1 against Cuba before enjoying a 4-1 win over Curacao to finish 5th and
qualify for the Gold Cup play-off while Haiti finished 3rd with a 2-1 victory
against Cuba.
In East Asian Cup
qualifiers played in Taiwan, Guam shocked their hosts 2-1 and held Hong Kong to
a goalless draw while Taiwan, who finished last, foiled the advances of top
team North Korea.
Among friendly matches Belarus defeated their Mexican
visitors 3-2 and Uruguay returned from Chile with a 2-1 victory while a late
goal gave Portugal a win over World Cup finalists Argentina in Manchester and Oman
thumped Kuwait 5-0 in the Gulf Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia.