France tumbles to 3-1 qualifying loss at Austria

The Associated Press ,  London   |  Sun, 09/07/2008 4:30 AM  |  Sports

Unconvincing wins for Italy, England and Portugal were all overshadowed Saturday when France started its attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a humbling 3-1 defeat at Austria.

While Italy won 2-1 at Cyprus and England beat Andorra 2-0, France continued to show the same poor form that brought a surprise first-round exit from this year's European Championship by losing to a team 91 places below it in FIFA's world rankings.

Philippe Mexes, with an own goal, Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz scored for the home side in Vienna to deal a heavy blow to a France team that faces a tough Serbia team in its next match on Wednesday

Italy at least escaped with victory following an injury-time goal from Antonio Di Natale, while England needed two second-half goals from substitute Joe Cole to end the jeers from their own supporters at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.

Portugal did better with a 4-0 win at Malta, but that came only after it added three goals in the last 29 minutes after clinging to a first-half own goal for much of the match.

Lukas Podolski scored twice to lead Euro 2008 runner-up Germany to a 6-0 rout of Liechtenstein, but none of the other favored teams performed at their best.

Austria took the lead in the eighth minute against 1998 World Cup champion France when Mexes misjudged a curling free kick by captain Andreas Ivanschitz and pushed the ball past his own goalkeeper.

Austria made it 2-0 in the 41st from a similar situation, with Aufhauser hitting a 10-meter (yard) shot from another free kick into the net via a slight deflection off defender William Gallas.

France increased its tempo in the second half with Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry both looking dangerous, and Benzema crossed to set up Sidney Gouvou for a French goal in the 61st.

Jeremy Toulalan hit the crossbar for France moments later but Austria sealed the win in the 72nd. Mexes pulled down Marc Janko in the area and Danish referee Claus Bo Larsen awarded a penalty, which Ivanschitz converted.

But Lithuania and not Austria was the surprise early leader of Group 7 following a shock 3-0 win at Romania, while Serbia beat visiting Faeroe Islands 2-0.

Italy appeared on track for a routine Group 8 victory at Cyprus when Di Natale put Italy ahead in the eighth minute. But Efstathios Aloneftis equalized in the 29th and Elias Charalambous had two late chances to put Cyrpus ahead, shooting past the post and having a shot blocked by defender Fabio Cannavaro.

Two minutes into injury time, Cyprus still looked set to take at least a point from the match but Di Natale met a looped ball in the area with a volley past goalkeeper Antonis Giorgallidi.

Also in Group 9, Montenegro was denied victory in its first ever World Cup qualifier when Bulgaria substitute Blagoi Georgiev scored in the final minute to earn his team a 2-2 draw, while Ireland won 2-1 at Georgia.

England coach Fabio Capello dropped David Beckham in one of four changes to the team that struggled in last month's drawn friendly against the Czech Republic, but his side only really came to life following the halftime introduction of Cole and striker Emile Heskey.

Cole put his team ahead in the 49th when he smashed in a close-range shot from a flick by Joleon Lescott, and he made it 2-0 nine minutes later with a low finish from Wayne Rooney's defense-splitting pass. He thought he had scored his hat trick with a back-heeled flick, but the goal was ruled out because he was offside.

But it was a poor performance in a match that was supposed to be a straightforward warmup for England's next Group 6 game - at Croatia.

"You have to judge us on Wednesday's game," Cole said. "We still have a lot to prove."

Croatia, which beat England home and away to qualify for Euro 2008 instead of its opponent, beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in its opening match through goals by Niko Kovac, Luka Modric and Mladen Petric. In the same group, Ukraine scraped to a 1-0 win over visiting Belarus with a 90th-minute penalty from Andriy Shevchenko.

With Cristiano Ronaldo out injured and Carlos Queiroz taking charge of his first competitive match, Portugal was unconvincing and needed a 25th-minute own goal by Brian Said to take the lead at Malta.

It looked like the score could stay like that but Hugo Almeida made it 2-0 in the 61st, Simao Sabrosa scored the third goal 10 minutes later, and Nani rounded things off in the 78th.

Sweden slipped behind Portugal in the race for one of the World Cup places available to the winners of Europe's nine qualifying groups after a disappointing 0-0 draw at Group 1 rival Albania, and Hungary held visiting Denmark to a 0-0 draw.

"It was very hard to win with a team with nine players in the back," Sweden captain Henrik Larsson said.

Simon Rolfes, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Heiko Westermann also scored for Germany at Liechtenstein in Group 4, which Wales opened by beating Azerbaijan 1-0.

Former European champions Greece took early charge of Group 2 when Vasileios Torosidis, Fanis Gekas and Angelos Charisteas scored in an easy 3-0 win at tiny Luxembourg, while Latvia won 2-1 at Moldova, and Israel rallied from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with visiting Switzerland.

Spain was set to play its first competitive match since winning the European Championship in June when it hosted Bosnia in Group 5 later Saturday. Belgium beat Estonia 3-2 in the same group, and Turkey won 2-0 at lowly Armenia with second-half goals from Tuncay Sanli and Semih Senturk.

The Netherlands lost a friendly 2-1 to visiting Australia but Scotland, which narrowly failed to qualify for the European Championship, missed a valuable opportunity to put early pressure on the Group 9 favorites when it lost 1-0 at Macedonia.

Striker Ilco Naumoski scored from a rebound after goalkeeper Craig Gordon pushed Goce Sedloski's fifth-minute free kick onto the post.

"We are happy with the win but will keep our feet on the ground," Macedonia coach Srecko Katanec said.

Iceland twice rallied to draw 2-2 at Norway in the same group.

In Group 3, Slovakia beat Northern Ireland 2-1 and Poland drew 1-1 with Slovenia.

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