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| Saturday, September 7, 2002 17:57 EST |
Turkey, France win openers
[Reuters]
LONDON -- Turkey continued its new-found love affair with international soccer when it opened its European Championship qualifying campaign with a slick 3-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday.
The surprise World Cup semifinalist totally dominated the Group 7 match in Istanbul and it was as good as over as a contest by halftime with Turkey already 2-0 up.
World Cup finalists Germany started their Group 5 campaign with a straight-forward 2-0 win in Lithuania.
But defending champion France failed to shake off its World Cup nightmare. It was made to fight hard and had to come back from a goal down to beat Cyprus 2-1 in a Group 1 match in Nicosia.
Italy bounced back from its World Cup disappointment with a 2-0 Group 9 win in Azerbaijan thanks to an own goal from Tarlan Akhmedov (33) and a second-half winner from Alessandro Del Piero (65).
Spain, which like Italy lost to South Korea in controversial circumstances in the World Cup, also returned to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Greece in its Group 6 match in Athens with Raul (8) and Juan Carlos Valeron (76) scoring.
The Netherlands, which missed out on the World Cup, began its international rehabilitation with a 3-0 win over Belarus in a Group 3 match in Eindhoven with Edgar Davids (35), Patrick Kluivert (37) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (73) scoring.
A miserable night for Belarus was completed when Maxim Ramachenko was sent off after 84 minutes
The only shock on the first day of the qualifying competition for the 2004 European Championship finals in Portugal was that there were no real upsets.
The Faroe Islands almost scored a rare victory against Scotland in Toftir. But after the islanders raced into an early 2-0 lead, Scotland fought back with two second-half goals to draw 2-2.
San Marino also put up a determined showing and restricted Poland to a 2-0 winning scoreline in their Group 4 match in Serravalle.
Turkey, which lost to eventual champions Brazil in the World Cup, was far too strong for Slovakia. Once Serhat Akin drew first blood after 14 minutes when three Slovakian defenders failed to clear a low cross from the right, there was only going
to be one winner.
Two more goals from Arif Erdem after 45 and 65 minutes wrapped up the points.
World Cup finalist Germany began its campaign with a 2-0 win in Lithuania thanks to goals from Michael Ballack (27) and Marius Stankevicius (58og) -- the fourth own goal Lithuania had gifted to the Germans in two days following three in an Under-21
international Friday.
France, which slipped out of the World Cup after the first round without scoring a goal, began the defense of their European title with a nervous 2-1 win over Cyprus.
France, which had not won an international since before the World Cup, fell behind to an 15th-minute goal scored by Ioannis Okkas. But it hit back to take all three points with goals from strikers Djibril Cisse (38) and Sylvain Wiltord (52).
Russia, which had a disappointing World Cup after also going out in the first round, put that behind it with a 4-2 win over Ireland in a Group 10 encounter in Moscow which was overshadowed by crowd trouble in the city center.
Before the game there were at least two clashes involving more than 100 Russian and Irish fans with some casualties reported.
Four players all made their 50th international appearances when Norway played Denmark in in their Group 2 match in Oslo -- Norwegians Frode Grodaas, Ronny Johnsen and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Denmark's Ebbe Sand -- and they shared the points as well as the congratulations in a 2-2 draw.
Austria, which has never reached a European Championship finals, got its challenge off to a winning start, beating Moldova 2-0 in its Group 3 match in Vienna.
Andreas Herzog scored both Austria's goals from the penalty spot after four and 30 minutes. Austria nearly allowed the Moldovans back in the game in the second half and were booed by a disappointed crowd.
Scotland fans were also disappointed by their result and performance in Toftir where the Faroe Islands had scored twice after only 11 minutes through John Petersen.
Scotland had lost five successive matches for the first time in its 130-year international history and that woeful run looked like being extended after it made a shocking start.
But second-half goals from Paul Lambert after 61 minutes and Barry Ferguson six minutes from time saved some of their blushes but still left manager Berti Vogts looking for a first win in six games in charge.
Wales had a superb result, winning 2-0 in Finland with goals from John Hartson (31) and Simon Davies (73).
It has now gone six matches unbeaten as it chases a place in the finals of a major tournament for the first time since it reached the 1958 World Cup.
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