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Weekly Football News 16 11 11
Weekly Soccer News, November 16, 2011
Euro 2012 line-up confirmed
After a goalless first leg, Portugal's household names lit up the return encounter against Bosnia-Herzegovina with a six-goal romp including a brace for Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and another for Nani of Manchester United.
Ronaldo's first was a stunning 35-yard free-kick, while his slick second saw him pull level with 32-goal Luis Figo in Portugal's goalscoring charts.
The Republic of Ireland confirmed qualification for only their second-ever European Championships (their first was in 1988) with a home draw against Estonia following their 4-0 away win on Friday. Meanwhile, another home draw - this time for Slaven Bilic's Croatia against Guus Hiddink's Turkey - was enough to book their passage to Euro 2012.
Finally, Petr Jiracek scored the only goal of the game to confirm the Czech Republic's place in Poland and Ukraine next summer at the expense of Montenegro.
Elsewhere in Europe …
Spain's poor record in recent friendlies continued against Costa Rica and they needed a last gasp leveller from David Villa of Barcelona to save face. Having lost to Portugal, Argentina and England in recent non-competitive internationals, the Spanish were forced to score twice in the final 10 minutes to snatch a 2-2 draw after first-half goals Randall Brenes and Joel Campbell.
Germany's 3-0 win in the Netherlands was arguably the result of the international break, a scoreline and performance that demonstrated that they will be willing and able to stop Spain retaining their European title in Poland and Ukraine. Thomas Muller, Miroslav Klose and Mesut Ozil scored Germany's goals.
England beat Sweden 1-0 at Wembley but France could only draw with Belgium.
Borghi recovers from “toughest week”
Chile coach Claudio Borghi said that his side's 2-0 defeat of Paraguay in Santiago was the sweetest moment of his managerial career.
Rocked last week by disciplinary problems and a 4-0 defeat to Uruguay - in which Luis Suarez of Liverpool scored all four goals - Chile rebounded in some style to get their World Cup qualifying campaign back on track
“I celebrated more today than in any other game I've coached, after one of the toughest weeks of my career as a coach and player, “Borghi smiled afterwards. “I don't want to sound pompous, but I think the players were playing for me today.”
Goals from Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero helped Argentina past Colombia despite falling behind in the first-half, while Venezuela and Ecuador also recorded wins.
Asian places go down to the wire
Four AFC qualifying berths remain after Australia, Iran and Iraq confirmed their places in the final qualifying phase for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Group E leaders Iran continued their free-scoring form with a 4-1 win over Indonesia, while Australia bounced back from their shock loss in Oman by pinching a 1-0 win in Thailand thanks to Brett Holman's 76th minute winner.
The result of matchday five in the Asian confederation though had to be Lebanon's 2-1 victory over South Korea in Beirut, a win which takes them joint level at the top of Group B with Korea with 10 points.
Compiled by Marc Fox
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