Belgium battle past Wales, Italy win in World Cup qualifying

New Straits Times

a day ago

PARIS: Belgium held off a battling Wales and Italy gave sacked coach Luciano Spalletti a winning send-off in World Cup qualifying on Monday.
Elsewhere, Manchester City star Erling Haaland's goal lifted Norway past Estonia, Luka Modrić was among the scorers in Croatia's 5–1 rout of the Czech Republic, and the Faroe Islands left it late to down Gibraltar 2–1.
Giacomo Raspadori and Andrea Cambiaso scored in each half as Italy beat Moldova 2–0, injecting a smidgeon of pride back into the Azzurri camp after last week's 3–0 thrashing by Norway, which cost Spalletti his job.
The Italians trail Norway by nine points in European qualifying Group I and risk missing out on a third consecutive World Cup.
Although they have played two games fewer, their ticket to the United States, Canada and Mexico next year is far from certain.
Only top spot in each group guarantees automatic qualification, with Italy's best hopes appearing to rest on finishing second and reaching the play-offs.
"When you're the national team coach, you have no excuses — it's you who selects the squad," Spalletti told public broadcaster Rai.
"It's the coach who has to make the difference, and unfortunately I wasn't able to do that."
Over in Brussels, Belgium raced to a three-goal lead over Wales courtesy of Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Jérémy Doku inside half an hour.
Wales, though, rallied through a Harry Wilson penalty, Sorba Thomas and Brennan Johnson to stun the side ranked eighth in the world.
But De Bruyne rode to his nation's rescue — as he has so often in a stellar career — by steering in Tielemans' perfect cross in the 88th minute.
It left Wales sitting second in Group J, one point behind North Macedonia — 1–0 winners over Kazakhstan — and three ahead of Belgium, who have two games in hand.
This was Wales manager Craig Bellamy's first defeat in his opening 10 matches in charge.
Wales captain Ben Davies told the BBC: "Getting back as close as we did is probably why it's as painful as it is.
"We knew we could do a lot better. You could see in the second half, we managed to nick a goal before half-time and it gave us something to hang on to — and we pushed them close.
"We have plenty more games; we just have to focus on ourselves and hopefully results go our way."
On Tuesday, the Netherlands host Malta in Groningen, hoping to make it two wins from two and close the gap on Poland, who face a stiff test in Finland in Group G.