Euro 2016 qualifying: Czech Republic stay perfect, Italy-Croatia features crowd trouble

Italy and Croatia drew, 1-1, in their Euro 2016 qualifying clash in Milan on Sunday. It was an impressive performance from the visitors, tarnished only by flare-throwing by their supporters in the second half. The game was restarted after a brief suspension, and ended all square.

Croatia made an excellent start to the match, but their early attacking pressure left them rather exposed on the counter-attack. Italy made them pay in the 11th minute, when Simone Zaza found an onrushing Antonio Candreva on the edge of the penalty area, before the Lazio midfielder drilled the ball past Danijel Subašić and into the bottom corner of the net.

Iceland took the lead in the 9th minute thanks to a poor decision by Czech keeper Petr Cech and some great teamwork. The initial ball into the box forced Cech to come off his line in an attempt to play the ball as it came in. Instead, it was headed back toward the end line, where Birkir Bjarnason did a tremendous job of keeping the ball in play and heading it back in front of goal, where Ragnar Sigurdsson was waiting to put the ball into the empty net. It’s the central defender’s first career international goal.

The Czechs responded well to the goal, but just when it looked like they would fail to equalize before halftime, Pavel Kaderabek got free in the middle of the Iceland box and sent a header past Hannes Thor Halldorsson to even the match at 1-1.

The European Championship qualifying match between Italy and Croatia has been suspended, due to the actions of visiting Croatia supporters. They’re throwing flares on the pitch, lighting fireworks and have been scuffling with police.

Flares were thrown early in the match and the referee stopped play, let stadium crew clear the flares of the pitch and was able to restart the match after a couple of minutes. He attempted to do the same thing in the second half, but when fireworks and disputes with police were thrown in, he didn’t have any choice but to suspend the game.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is a striker, so he’s a natural goalscorer. And even when he is near his own goal, he will put the ball on frame.

At least it’s hilarious! For us.

He sustained the injury midway through the opening period, and initially tried to run it off. However, he failed to do so, and so coach Niko Kovač was forced into a substitution. Inter Milan wonderkid Mateo Kovačić was the chosen replacement.

As of yet, there’s no word on the nature of the injury, though he left the field clutching the top of his left leg. It looked like a muscular injury, which will hopefully mean he’s sidelined for weeks at the most.

Iceland have, incredibly, not conceded a goal up until this point. They also haven’t played Kazakhstan yet and have put up their results against this group’s three stronger teams -- Netherlands, Turkey and Latvia. The Czechs have looked a bit more shaky in grabbing their results, but their nine points count just the same.

Key player - Gylfi Sigurdsson (Iceland)

Match Date/Time: Sunday November 16 at 6 p.m. local, 12 p.m. ET

Venue: PSV Stadium, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Key player - Luka Modrić (Croatia)

While other Croatians have more caps or have scored more goals for their country than Modrić, no one in this squad is more important to the side than the pocket-sized midfielder. Modrić‘s top-shelf passing and creativity coupled with his under-rated defensive work has lead Croatia to some impressive performances over the last few years, and he played a huge role in getting his side to the World Cup this summer. If Italy want to win this match, Claudio Marchisio and Daniele De Rossi are going to have to figure out how to keep Modrić under wraps, or it’s going to be a long day at the office for Italy’s midfield.

In their entire history, San Marino have won a single match. They’re dead-last in Europe in every ranking system used to compare international football squads. They famously had a run of over 20 matches over almost four years without scoring a goal. They lost 61 matches in a row.

But not today. On Saturday, San Marino did not lose. They drew Estonia, 0-0.

The match is scheduled to be played at the San Siro in Milan, but the city has been lashed by the storm for the last few days, and parts of the city have experienced flooding as a result. While no flooding has occurred around the stadium, the pitch itself has been left in poor shape by the heavy rainfall.

“If the turf remains in these conditions, then I don’t think the game can go ahead,” Croatia manager Niko Kovac told reporters in his pre-match press conference. “It would be like a game of water polo. The ball simply does not bounce.”

The second half appeared to be more of the same until the 58th minute, when Henderson directed a spectacular header into his own net. It was so good that it appeared he forgot what end of the pitch he was on and intended to hit the back of the net.

While that was a bit lucky for England, their clinching goal was gorgeous, and put a nice exclamation point on an otherwise uninspiring performance. Welbeck and Sterling played a wonderful one-two exchange at the top of the box before Welbeck placed a composed finish past Handanovic at his far post from 12 yards.

A strong performance from a surprising Austria side was enough to put down a disappointing Russia as the hosts won 1-0 and secured their place atop Group G in European Championship qualifying.

There was a moment of controversy just a few minutes after Arnautovic’s miss. Martin Harnik, by far Austria’s best performer on the day, drove in to the box one-on-one with Russian left back Dmitri Kombarov. When Harnik tried to round Kombarov, the fullabck shoved him off the ball, then shoulder-checked the Austrian when he tried to run back on to the ball before it went out for a goal kick. It looked like a clear penalty for the hosts, but English referee Martin Atkinson was uninterested in Harnik’s protests.

Turn the volume up and listen to this falsetto masterpiece.

Srečko Katanec boasts a very talented team, with some of the best players including Inter Milan goalkeeper Samir Handanović and Red Bull Salzburg’s young midfield prospect Kevin Kampl. What’s more, England will be without Leighton Baines, Andros Townsend and Michael Carrick, who have all withdrawn from Roy Hodgson’s squad with injury woes.

Key player - Wayne Rooney (England)

Now Austria are getting ready to host Russia, with a chance to at least hold their advantage over Sweden and widen the gap between them and the Russians. They’ve been quite impressive during their qualifying run so far, including a hard-fought draw against the Swedes in Vienna. If Austria can win this match today, they will be well along the path to a surprising qualification and earning significant respect from football fans around the world.

Key player - Martin Harnik (Austria)

They’re likely to shape up with an extremely defensive formation in this match, and will presumably just seek to limit their losses. Fortunately for them, Spain will be without Chelsea forward Diego Costa, who wasn’t called up due to injury. His domestic and international teammate, midfielder Cesc Fàbregas, is also unavailable after withdrawing from the Spain squad with a hamstring problem.

Key player - Paco Alcácer (Spain)

The 63-year-old no longer has any say in the matter. The EPO have terminated his contract, although he will stay on through the friendly match against Serbia on Tuesday. Then Ranieri will now be seeking employment elsewhere. Back to Italy, perhaps?

You do not think of a five-touch play on a short corner that includes a perfect back heel and a first touch curled finish right in the side netting.

You do not think of this,

It didn’t really matter how well or poor they were going to play, as Germany knew they would get the win over Gibraltar. The only question for the current world champions would be the margin of victory. Coming into the match, Gibraltar knew they would be massive underdogs, but had the mentality that if they conceded fewer than seven, they were a better side than Brazil. They did just that, losing 4-0.

An attacking 3-4-1-2 lineup featured Mario Götze behind Thomas Müller and Max Kruse, with Karim Bellarabi and Lukas Podolski out wide.

The first quarter of the match was a frantic affair, with both sides playing at a tempo not exactly conducive to high-quality football. But before long, Scotland settled into dominating possession, with a patient passing game that contrasted with Ireland’s much more direct approach. Yet, while the hosts saw plenty of the ball, they didn’t see much of the goal, with Martin O’Neill’s side staying disciplined at the back.

Eventually, with just over 10 minutes of the half remaining, Scotland created the game’s first real chance. An inch-perfect cross from Shaun Maloney found the head of Charlie Mulgrew in the box, though the onrushing Celtic man had his effort diverted agonizingly wide by Ireland full-back Séamus Coleman. Scotland continued to bombard the Ireland box with crosses through to halftime, but the game stayed level.

The story of the first half between Portugal and Armenia was one of no goals, physical play and some decent chances for both sides. Portugal were the dominant side when it came to possession, but that didn’t stop Armenia from looking dangerous on the counter attack. There were also several terrible challenges by players that strangely went unpunished by the referee. It was not a pretty half of football to be sure.

Dani made a nuisance of himself a couple times for Portugal, but the best chance of the half came from Armenia’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan who brilliantly curled a free kick through the Portuguese wall, only to be denied by an equally brilliant save from Rui Patrício.

The road to Euro 2016 has already been a bit rocky for Portugal, who lost at home to Albania in their opening match. But they got back on track with a win away to Denmark in an early virtual must-win situation, while events elsewhere have given them a boost. Albania and Serbia both ended up with no points from their match that was abandoned due to a fight.

On Friday, Portugal play host to Armenia, who have struggled in their first two games. The Armenians have played well in recent cycles, looking like they might be able to qualify for a major finals sometime soon, but their narrow loss away to Denmark and failure to beat Serbia at home has them sitting bottom of the table. But currently, this group is so close that a win of any kind would see Armenia record a better record than any other team had through three games.

Any match involving Ireland is predicated on how Keane performs. The 34 year old Los Angeles Galaxy striker is still capable of transforming a match despite his advancing years, and if he’s on his game and getting decent service, he can almost single-handedly keep Ireland in a lot of matches they might otherwise be in. If his mind is more on LA’s upcoming MLS playoff matches, though, it’s going to be a lot harder for Ireland to get the job done.

As an interesting statistical sidenote, Keane has more than double the number of international goals under his belt (65) than the entire Scotland squad available for this match has combined (29). Admittedly, Scotland haven’t been that great at scoring goals in the last few years, but that’s still a stunning number to see.