Football
ESPN staff 9y

Iceland beat Netherlands for first time; 10-man Italy hold on to win

Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson scored both goals on Monday as Iceland beat Netherlands 2-0 in a European Championship qualifier to hand new coach Guus Hiddink his third loss in four matches since taking over after the World Cup.

Sigurdsson scored twice before the break. He fired home from the spot in the 10th minute after Stefan de Vrij had brought down Birkir Bjarnason, and volleyed powerfully into the roof of the net in the 42nd minute after the Dutch defence failed to clear a corner.

The win was Iceland's first over Netherlands in 11 meetings, kept Iceland perfect in three qualifiers and left them level atop Group A with Czech Republic.

The Czechs got their third straight win by beating Kazakhstan 4-2 in Almaty.

First-half goals from Borek Dockal and David Lafata gave Pavel Vrba's side a commanding advantage which was added to by Lukas Vacha.

Kazakh defender Yuri Logvinenko scored two consolation goals in the final 10 minutes, but Tomas Necid's strike meant the visitors were never concerned.

Also in Group A, Turkey secured their first point of the campaign but were denied all three by a Valerijs Sabala penalty as Latvia secured a 1-1 draw in Riga.

Fatih Terim's side took a 47th-minute lead through substitute Bilal Kisa at Skonto Stadion, but Sabala's spot-kick swiftly got the hosts back on level terms.

Italy laboured to a 1-0 win at tiny Malta to remain perfect in Group H.

Southampton forward Graziano Pelle, added to the Italy squad in place of Mario Balotelli, scored on his international debut, taking advantage of a loose ball inside the box following a corner in the 23rd minute. Italy also hit the goal frame four times.

Both Malta and Italy ended with 10 men. Malta captain Michael Mifsud was shown a controversial red card for a foul on Alessandro Florenzi in the 27th minute even though replays showed there was hardly contact.

Still, the 155th-ranked island nation put up stiff defensive resistance the rest of the way and Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci was sent off for a professional foul on Andre Schembri in the 73rd minute.

Croatia crushed Azerbaijan 6-0 at home to keep pace with Italy.

Ivan Perisic scored twice and Andrej Kramaric, Marcelo Brozovic, Luka Modric also added goals, while Azerbaijan's Rashad Sadygov scored an own goal.

Also in Group H, Norway beat Bulgaria 2-1 for their second win in four days.

Tarik Elyounoussi struck early on for the home side but Nikolay Bodurov leveled the scores at the break before Havard Nielsen's strike with 20 minutes to go sealed the win for Per-Mathias Hogmo's side in Olso.

Norway were also able to give a competitive debut -- from the bench -- to Martin Odegaard, aged just 15 years and 300 days.

Bosnia-Herzegovina keeper Asmir Begovic fumbled an easy shot from Radja Nainggolan to allow Belgium to escape with a 1-1 away draw in Group B.

Bosnia took the lead in the 28th minute through captain Edin Dzeko before Belgium got the equaliser in the 51st minute.

Wales consolidated the lead in the group by beating Cyprus 2-1. David Cotterill, on as an early substitute for Simon Church, opened the scoring in the 13th minute before Hal Robson-Kanu doubled the advantage following a clever back heel from Gareth Bale.

Cyprus gave themselves a lifeline when Vincent Laban's free kick evaded everyone in a crowded goalmouth to end up in the Welsh net, but the visitors could not level the score.

Israel maintained their 100 percent start to Euro 2016 qualification with a 4-1 victory over Andorra.

Omer Damari was the hero, the Austria Vienna striker scoring twice in the first half and then completing his hat-trick eight minutes from time before Tomer Hemed netted a stoppage-time penalty.

^ Back to Top ^