VIENNA, June 3, (Agencies): Mario Gomez grabbed a last-gasp winner as Germany beat Austria 2-1 to maintain a 100 percent record in Euro 2012 qualifying Group A on Friday.
Germany, having won their first five games, took the lead a minute before halftime when Gomez scrambled the ball home from a corner for his first goal of the night.
But Austria, beaten in their last five meetings with their neighbours, levelled five minutes after the break when teenager David Alaba’s cross was turned into his own net by Arne Friedrich.
Austria looked the more likely winners until Gomez got in front of his marker to head in Philippe Lahm’s cross in the last minute.
The win left Germany with 18 points from six games and Austria with seven.
A lively start saw Martin Harnik head narrowly wide in the fourth minute before the visitors replied with a flurry of chances.
The best of these saw the lively Gomez flick the ball wide of the post after a quick-passing move sliced open the Austria defence before Lukas Podolski rifled a left-foot shot against the bar from 25 metres.
Germany’s dominance continue as Gomez headed into the arms of goalkeeper Christian Gratzei although Austria came back into the game after the half-hour.
Erwin Hoffer had the home side’s best first-half chance, poking the ball wide after a superb drag-back, but Germany went ahead with their next attack when Gomez scored from close range as the hosts failed to clear a corner.
Austria were level five minutes after the restart when Florian Klein found Alaba free on the left and the 18-year-old’s low cross was turned into his own goal by Friedrich.
Stefan Kulovits headed against the post in Austria’s next attack as they continued to put pressure on the visitors who missed the influence of Bastian Schweinsteiger in midfield.
Italy 3 Estonia 0
Italy are on the brink of qualifying for the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine after maintaining their grip on Group C with a 3-0 win over Estonia here on Friday.
Italy stayed five points clear of Slovenia, 2-0 winners in the Faroe Islands, with a game in hand, and need only win two of their last four matches to guarantee progress to the finals.
Forwards Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini scored one each in what was a walk in the park for the Azzurri against poor opponents.
Although coach Cesare Prandlli had claimed before the game that he expected it to be tougher than their meeting in Tallinn in September — where Italy scraped a 2-1 success — this was anything but competitive. On seven minutes Cassano pounced on a defender’s slip but his chipped finish was easy for goalkeeper Sergei Pareiko. Martin Vunk had a speculative crack from distance for the visitors but dragged it wide.
On 14 minutes Rossi played a great pass down the inside right channel for Cassano but he shot straight at Pareiko, who saved with his legs.
From Pirlo’s resulting corner Rossi’s flicked header had Pareiko scrambling it clear at his near post. Rossi was causing all sorts of problems and he managed to skip inside Tavvi Rahn but Pareiko came out well to block his shot.
Estonia could only take pot shots from outside the box and Tarmo Kink had a whack that flew wide.
Italy got the goal their dominance deserved on 21 minutes as a Rahn mistake handed the ball to Cassano, who slipped it to Rossi.
The Villarreal man beat two defenders but seemed to have gone too wide until he fired a rasper across Pareiko into the bottom far corner.
France 1 Belarus 1
French coach Laurent Blanc cvould not hide his frustration as France laboured to a 1-1 draw at Belarus in their Euro 2012 Group D qualifier in Minsk on Friday.
France still lead the group by a healthy four points from the eastern Europeans - but Les Bleus seem intent on making heavy weather of their passage to next summer’s finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Eric Abidal was back in French blue less than a week after liting the European Cup with Barcelona at Wembley - but if the return was an emotional one in a season which saw him undergo surgery on a kidney tumour in March it was also not entirely a successful one. The left back promptly put through his own net on 20 minutes and although Florent Malouda - playing out on the right - levelled within two minutes that was as good as it would get for the French with striker Karim Benzema seemingly having left his shooting boots at home.
The French began with a shock home loss against Belarus and Blanc, who came under fire recently over alleged proposals to introduce race quotas at youth level before an internal investigation cleared him, was clearly vexed.
Romania 3 Bosnia 0
Two goals from Ciprian Marica and one by Adrian Mutu gave Romania a 3-0 win over Bosnia on Friday, their second victory in Euro 2012 qualifying.
Romania have eight points from six games in Group D while Bosnia are on seven points from five matches.
Mutu opened the scoring from close range in the 37th minute before Marica put the game beyond the visitors in the 41st and 55th. Cristian Sapunaru also missed a penalty for the home team deep into stoppage time.
“It was a very good performance ... I hope this is a new beginning for Romania,” Mutu told state television.
Romania resume their qualifying campaign against bottom team Luxembourg in September while Bosnia entertain Albania on Tuesday.
Kazakhs 2 Azerbaijan 0
Kazakhstan beat fellow Group A outsiders Azerbaijan for their first win in Euro 2012 qualifying on Friday, with two goals from Sergey Gridin.
Azerbaijan had stunned Euro 2008 semi-finalists Turkey with a surprise 1-0 win last October but were unable to hold off bottom-placed Kazakhstan who had not scored a single goal in their five previous games.
“This victory was well-deserved. The Kazakhs played with passion,” Azerbaijan coach Berti Vogts, who formerly coached Germany and Scotland, told a news conference.
“Our rivals today showed the kind of soccer that is played at the international level. As for my team, I am very upset. We have a young team and for 90 straight minutes it can’t display the kind of soccer we play while training.”
Gridin put Kazakhstan ahead in the 57th minute before Azerbaijan’s Vugar Nadirov equalised in the 63rd minute, two minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Turkey 1 Belgium 1
Turkey came from behind to draw 1-1 with Belgium on Friday, a result that leaves the visitors best placed to secure second spot behind runaway leaders Germany in Euro 2012 Group A qualifying.
Belgium maintained their one-point cushion over Turkey but wasted a great chance when Axel Witsel missed a penalty with 15 minutes left.
Turkey, coached by Chelsea target Guus Hiddink, have a game in hand on the Belgians in the chase for a playoff spot. Germany lead the way with 18 points from six matches. The hosts opened the scoring after four minutes, Marvin Ogunjimi grabbing his fourth goal in six matches as he profited from a slip by Turkey left back Caglar Birinci.
The visitors equalised midway through the first half when Arda Turan ran down the right and set up Burak Yilmaz for an easy tap-in.