Ukraine and Turkey have scored wins while Russia managed only a 1-1 draw in European qualifying matches for next year's World Cup football (soccer) tournament in Germany.
Turkey scored a 5-2 win over Georgia in Tbilisi, with Fatih Tekke scoring twice for the Turkish team. In another 1-1 draw with Estonia at Tallinn's Le Coq Stadium. Andrei Arshavin put Russia in the lead with a goal in the 18th minute. Estonia's Sergei Terehhov scored in the 64th minute to secure the draw.
Meanwhile, Milan Baros scored one goal and assisted on another to lead the Czech Republic to a 4-0 Group 1 win over Andorra. Marek Jankulovski, Vratislav Lokvenc and Tomas Rosicky also scored for the Czech Republic.
In Group 8, Dado Prso scored twice to lead Croatia to a 3-0 win over Malta. Prso opened the scoring in the 23rd minute and added his second goal 13 minutes later.
In Group 3, Latvia shut out Luxembourg, 4-0, thanks in part to two goals from Maris Verpakovskis (73rd and 90th minutes). Also in Group 3, Slovakia played Portugal to a 1-1 draw in Bratislava.
In other matches it was:
Slovenia 1 Belarus 1
Poland 1 Northern Ireland 0
Romania 2 Macedonia 1
Lithuania 1 Bosnia-Herzegovina 1
The group winners and the two best second-place teams automatically qualify for the World Cup. The six other second-place teams will play off for three berths to Germany.
Some information for this report provided by AP.
