Friday, October 18, 2019

Expected path


In the month of October there were relatively few unexpected results in international qualifiers. Bangladesh earned a 1-1 draw in India and Iran lost 1-0 away to Bahrain in World Cup qualifiers while in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers Chad beat Liberia 1-0 in their home match to take it penalties and knock their visitors out, and Gambia did the same to Djibouti after a 1-1 draw.
In the Euro qualifiers England lost 2-1 away to the Czech Republic but bounced back in Bulgaria a few days later winning 6-0 in a black day for Bulgarian football remembered for racist chants while Bosnia and Herzegovina brushed Finland aside 4-1 at home but lost 2-1 in Greece and Turkey retuned from France with a 1-1 draw. Cyprus won 2-1 in Kazakhstan only to return home and get hammered 5-0 by Russia and Estonia held their Belarussian hosts to a goalless draw while in a CONCACAF Nations League match in Anguilla, St Martin celebrated a 3-0 victory over the Cayman Islands. In a friendly match played in France, Colombia lost 3-0 to Algeria for whom Riyad Mahrez netted twice.