Euro 2012 Qualifying: Netherlands, Germany, Italy, England All Stay Perfect

A lackluster performance from the hosts went unpunished by Finland, who saw Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s brace hold-up for a 2-1 win Tuesday. The Netherlands is now perfect through two qualifiers, while Finland has failed to register a point.

Huntelaar’s first came seven minutes in when the Schalke forward headed home a Wesley Sneijder corner kick. His second came ten minutes later on a conversion of a penalty kick drawn by Mark van Bommel.

In the first battle between teams expected to compete for Group A’s second place, Turkey held home pitch with a 3-2 victory over 10-man Belgium. Midfielder Ada Turan’s second goal of qualifying, fourteen minutes after Vincent Kompany had picked up a second yellow card, proved the winning goal for Guus Hiddink’s team, who stayed perfect through two matches.

Turan’s goal came nine minutes after Belgium had equalized despite being a man down, veteran defender Daniel van Buyten having recorded his second goal of the match. Turan’s winner, however, pushed the Belgians to six points behind Turkey, having suffered two, one goal losses to open qualifying.

Un-retired Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored seven minutes into the match, with Davide Simoncini adding an own goal five minutes later. Pontus Wernbloom added his third goal of qualifying eight minutes before defender Olof Mellberg was shown red, but the numerical disadvantage failed to detour the Swedes. Andreas Granqvist would score early in the second, while Ibrahimovic and Marcus Berg would add late goals to give the hosts the six goal win.

With the Netherlands struggling to replicate Friday’s 5-0 over San Marino against Finland on Tuesday, Sweden looked to be at the top of Group E by the end of the first week’s qualifiers. San Marino, on the other hand, site bottom of Group E with a -11 goal difference.

Montenegro is off to a perfect start in Group G after winning in Bulgaria on Tuesday, 1-0. The win comes after an identical result against Wales on Friday, putting Montenegro on six points and, presumably, even with England atop their quintet.

Montenegro followed a similar formula in their second qualifier that worked in their first: hold-out after an early goal. Whereas on Friday their goal came from captain Mirko Vucinic, today the goal came in the 36th minute from Elsad Zverotic.

Latvia recovered from Friday’s disappointing home loss to Croatia, beating Malta 2-0 in Ta’Qali to earn their first points of Euro 2012 qualifying. For Malta, the loss leaves them with no points after the first week of matches and affirms their place as group minnows.

Latvia got on the board first when Kaspars Gorkss scored three minutes before halftime. A late goal from forward Maris Verpakovskis gave the visitors their final margin of victory, sending Malta to the bottom of Group F.

Belarus was not able to build upon Friday’s 1-0 win in France, though today’s 0-0 draw with Romania leaves them with four points through two rounds, a total the team would have been happy with coming into the international break. Conversely, Romania’s two points through as many matches leaves the group’s second-rated team chasing after two match days.

Though Sergei Kornilenko nearly put the hosts ahead after eight minutes, Romania had more chances throughout the match, with Bogdan Stancu, Ciprian Deac and Rozvan Cocis each missing chances to give the Romanians a road victory.

Georgia’s started strong in Group F, earning draws against two of the group’s top three after with their 0-0 result today against visiting Israel. The Israelis were coming off a 3-1 home win last Thursday against Malta.

Georgia had the better of possession and chances throughout the match, played on a rugged pitch in Tiblisi. Gogita Gogua came closest to scoring, putting a shot off the Israel crossbar early in the first half.

Slovakia took control of Group B in Euro 2010 qualifying with their 1-0 in Russia on Tuesday. Miroslav Stoch’s 27th minute goal held up to take Slovakia to six points through two matches following their second successive 1-0 victory.

Russia is the “seeded” team of the group but now sits on three points after two matches, having defeated Andorra on Friday to open qualifying. Tuesday’s match saw the return of Yuri Zhirkov to the lineup, the left back having served a suspension in Russia’s opener.

The tables will undergo a drastic shake-up after today’s 23 matches, but as of the beginning of Tuesday’s slate of Euro 2012 qualifiers, the nine groups looked like this:

Here is today’s full fixture list:

Russia versus Slovakia, 11:00 a.m. Eastern