Russia 2018 takes winter break

The World Cup qualifiers took a winter break after a busy week in November. French Guiana came from 2 down to blow hosts Haiti away 5-2 with a hat-trick from Sloan Privat in the rearranged World Cup qualifier in the Caribbean section while in North America Mexico were 2-1 winners in the USA and Honduras lost 1-0 at home to Panama. In South America Paraguay were humiliated 4-1 at home to Peru and lost 1-0 in Bolivia who had earlier been humbled 5-0 in Venezuela. The Venezuelans then lost 3-0 in Ecuador and Peru lost 2-0 at home to Brazil, who top the football rankings, while Argentina put 3 past their visitors from Colombia and Chile sent Uruguay home 3-1 losers. In Europe Poland were 3-0 victorious in Romania and Israel enjoyed the same result at 9-man Albania while Armenia came from 2 down against Montenegro to celebrate a last-minute home win and  Denmark triumphed 4-1 at home to Kazakhstan. Georgia could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Moldova while the Irish Republic won by a single goal in Austria and Belarus who enjoyed a 1-0 win in Greece were beaten 1-0 in Bulgaria days later and Lithuania were taken apart 4-0 in Slovakia.

In Africa Cameroon were held to a 1-1 home draw by Zambia while Cape Verde were beaten 2-0 by their visitors from Burkina Faso and Senegal lost 2-1 in South Africa. Nigeria enjoyed a 3-1 home win over Algeria while Mali were held at home to a goalless draw by Gabon and in Oceania Tahiti lost 1-0 away to the Solomon Islands while New Zealand fired blanks in New Caledonia. In Asian qualifiers Australia drew 2-2 in Thailand, Syria and Iran played a goalless match in Malaysia and Iraq lost 2-0 in the UAE while in the Solidarity Cup in Malaysia, Brunei smashed East Timor 4-0, Laos were humiliated 4-1 by Macau and enjoyed a 2-0 win over Sri Lanka. In an East Asian Cup qualifier Taiwan defeated Guam 2-0 in Hong Kong.