Football catching up

 

The 2022 World Cup qualifiers in South America finally kicked off, as did the play-off matches for the postponed 2020 Euros, while the European League of Nations continued.

Venezuela got off to a poor start losing their first home matches 3-0 to Colombia, with 2 goals from Luis Muriel, and 1-0 to Paraguay while 2 late Luis Suaraz penalties were not enough for Uruguay as Ecuador had already taken a 4-goal lead with Michael Estrada netting twice for the hosts. Neymar claimed a hat-trick in Brazil’s 4-2 win in Peru who finished the match with 9 players on the field.

In the Euro 2020 qualifier play-offs, Serbia eliminated their Norwegian hosts 2-1 in extra time while Hungary triumphed 3-1 in Bulgaria. A few days later the Hungarians  continued their rise in the football rankings with a 1-0 win away to Serbia in the European League of Nations while 10-man England lost 1-0 at home to Denmark and Gibraltar enjoyed a 1-0 win in Liechtenstein.

Three days after a 3-0 defeat to Mali,  Andre Ayew scored twice to help Ghana demolish Asian champions Qatar 5-1 in another friendly match played in Turkey while Burkina Faso beat DR Congo 3-0 in Morocco and South Africa lost 2-1 at home to Zambia. Belgium were held to a goalless draw at home to Ivory Coast while Costa Rica lost 1-0 at home to Panama and Nicaragua drew 1-1 in Honduras. In other friendly matches, Mozambique lost 1-0 to Guinea Bissau and 3-0 to Angola in Portugal while Tanzania suffered a 1-0 loss at home to Burundi.

A quiet return

 

After an absence of six months, international football returned to empty stadiums across Europe in the European League of Nations. Turkey suffered the lack of atmosphere and went down 1-0 to Hungary while Italy could only draw 1-1 at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina, but bounced back with a 1-0 victory in the Netherlands.  Norway came out of hibernation with a 2-1 home loss to Austria but thumped their Northern Irish hosts 5-1 with Alexander Sorloth and Erling Haaland both netting a brace while the Austrians, who took a 2 goal lead to the break, lost 3-2 to their Romanian visitors. The Czech Republic enjoyed a 3-1 win in Slovakia, but were without some of their key players due to health and safety reason when they lost 2-1 at home to Scotland while Finland upset the Republic of Ireland 1-0 in Dublin. Albania triumphed 2-0 in Belarus but were stunned 1-0 at home to Lithuania days later while Montenegro were 2-0 winners in Cyprus and picked up 3 more points with a single goal in Luxembourg moving up 17 places in the rankings.