New coach, same story as Belarus shock France

Published>Sat, Sep 04 10 04:21 AM

France learned the road to post-World Cup redemption will be long and hard as they suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Belarus on Friday, while Spain revelled in their status as world and European champions with an easy win over Liechtenstein.

England and Italy were able to make positive starts on their routes to recovery from disappointing World Cup displays, scoring contrasting wins in their first Euro 2012 qualifiers.

England played with the sort of skill and quick passing that completely eluded them in South Africa as they beat Bulgaria 4-0 at Wembley, Jermain Defoe netting a smartly taken hat-trick in the Group G clash.

Italy were almost embarrassed but were ultimately able to celebrate a 2-1 victory after coming from a goal down away to Estonia in Group C.

For France, though, there was only further misery, as a much changed team from the World Cup was cheered on to the pitch but roundly booed off it.

Laurent Blanc's first competitive match since replacing Raymond Domenech after a World Cup campaign that veered between farce and fiasco offered few positives for the French, as a late goal from Sergei Kislyak consigned them to a Group D defeat.

While Europe's first big night of competitive international action since the World Cup was a chance for atonement for the flops, it was a celebration for the three big success stories.

Spain led the way as two goals from Fernando Torres and one from World Cup hero David Villa -- who moved to within one goal of equalling Raul's scoring record for the country -- helped them brush past Liechtenstein in a Group I match in Vaduz.

David Silva was the other scorer in the opening match of the defence of the title Spain won in Austria and Switzerland in 2008.

The Netherlands, beaten by the Spanish in the Johannesburg final, saw off San Marino 5-0 in Group E with a hat-trick from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

SERIOUS OPPONENTS

Germany, who took third place at the World Cup, had a tougher night against more serious opponents in Group A but came through 1-0 against Belgium with a goal from the ever reliable Miroslav Klose.

In the night's other David and Goliath clash, Russia proved there is no room for sentiment when it comes to the business of qualifying, grabbing a workmanlike 2-0 win away to Andorra in Group B thanks to two goals from Pavel Pogrebnyak.

While Blanc was suffering the ignominy of defeat, new Italy coach Cesare Prandelli was able to celebrate -- but only after an almighty scare.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 31st minute when forward Sergei Zenjov struck after Italian keeper Salvatore Sirigu lost his grip on the wet ball.

The 2006 world champions just managed to halt their seven-game win drought thanks to second-half goals from Antonio Cassano and Leonardo Bonucci.

"It's a strong emotion," Prandelli told Rai TV after his first competitive game in charge.

"We had the right reaction and deserved to win. I said at halftime we had to continue doing the right things but with more speed. We made mistakes on nearly every dead ball we conceded.

"At the moment Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini are the two forwards who shine the most."

England's commanding win over Bulgaria will have come as a relief to another Italian coach in Fabio Capello, whose position was called into question after England's limp 4-1 exit to Germany in the World Cup second round.

Defoe's opening goal in the third minute set them on their way and while their form dipped after that they finished strongly. Defoe completed his hat-trick with goals in the 61st and 86th minutes, with Adam Johnson also finding the net.

Source: Web Search