Italy Falter While Germany, Netherlands, England Win

The road to the 2014 World Cup kicked off today in Europe as UEFA qualfiers began with a full slate of matches. Here’s a rundown of all the results.

Everton’s Nikica Jelavic headed home a goal in the 68th minute, just five minutes after entering the match, and that was all that Crotia needed as they defeated Macedonia 1-0 at home. Not a great result in terms of padding the goal differential, but three points are always good.

Portugal made hard work of what should’ve been a simple victory as they eventually emerged victorious after Luxembourg took a shock lead.

After a tense opening, it was the hosts who eventually took the lead, Daniel Da Mota, ironically Portuguese-born, taking the ball down on his chest and smashing a wonderful finish into the top corner of the net.

Fortunately for England, they’re playing Moldova and none of this should really matter.

The Faroe Islands will be looking to pull off the shocking upset, but the chances of that happening are very low. However the one thing they’ll have going for them is that the pressure is all on the Germans. Anything other than a resounding result in their favor will be frowned upon by their fans and cause a panic among the German sports media.

I’m trying to be nice about this, but let’s be honest, Germany should run right over the Faroe Islands on their way to topping would should be a fairly easy Group A.

Deschamps will also be no doubt annoyed that his captain and starting goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has played limited minutes as well after being transferred to Tottenham.

If Finland hopes to complete in this group, a result against France would be a good way to start

Russia should win at home, but if they don’t grab an early goal, things might get tough on them. Northern Ireland don’t have much in the way of technical quality or goal-scoring threats, but they do have solid defenders, an experienced goalkeeper and athleticism in midfield.

Game Date/Time: Friday, 11 a.m. ET, 7 p.m. local

Since you’ve spent the last four days hating that the international break is a thing, the world has decided to be nice to you and at least put some games on television this Friday. UEFA kicks off qualifying for World Cup 2014 this week, and they didn’t schedule too many of the important matchups for the first round. Sorry!

Group A