World Cup finalists maintain perfect records
Dienstag, 29. März 2011
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European champions Spain and the Netherlands strengthened their holds on Groups I and E, while Sweden, Turkey and Israel raised their hopes of reaching UEFA EURO 2012.
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The Netherlands and Spain strengthened their respective holds on Group E and Group I after victories against Hungary and Lithuania, while Sweden, Turkey and Israel raised their hopes of UEFA EURO 2012 qualification.
FIFA World Cup finalists in 2010, the Netherlands and Spain reached last summer's tournament with perfect qualifying records. Both sides have again won every game thus far on the road to Poland and Ukraine, though the Oranje were given a rather tougher time against Hungary than they experienced in Budapest on Friday, when they ran out 4-0 winners.
In a see-saw encounter, they fell 2-1 behind five minutes after half-time and were then dragged back to 3-3 with a quarter of an hour left before eventually winning 5-3 thanks to a Dirk Kuyt double. Spain also required second-half goals to beat Lithuania, Juan Mata sealing a 3-1 victory seven minutes from time while the Czech Republic consolidated their place in second in Group I with a 2-0 win against Liechtenstein.
Turkey beat Austria 2-0 to move into third in Group A, a point behind Belgium who defeated Azerbaijan 4-1. Israel beat Georgia 1-0 to go third in Group F – a section where two points separates the top four. Elsewhere, Romania picked up their first win of the campaign, overcoming Luxembourg 3-1.
View all Tuesday's qualifying results – and individual match reports – on the right of this page.