The European section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification begins on Sunday. On the day 1, there were 9 matches played under three groups, out of which 5 matches were produced winners while other 4 matches were resulted draw at the end.
England snatched a victory through the injury time goal from Adam Lallana as they beat 10-man Slovakia by 1-0 in the Group F encounter. On the other hand, 2014 FIFA World Cup winner Germany begins their next World Cup qualification journey with an easy win by 3-0 over Norway in the Group C encounter.
It was the first international match for England under Sam Allardyce coaching as Lallana’s very final moment goal produced a memorable victory for Allardyce’s England. Though England totally dominated in the match over the hosts Slovakia, but failed to open the score before the Lallana’s victorious goal.
Slovakia went down to 10-man in 57 minutes after Liverpool center-back Martin Skrtel was shown second yellow card for his suicidal trampling on the ankle of visitors’ striker Harry Kane. At earlier, Skrtel was warned through the first yellow card at 25 minutes of the match after his elbow hit on Kane’s face.
Despite dominating in the full match, England was failing to net the ball. In the 90 minutes, Walcott succeeded to net the ball for England finally but the celebration went in vain due to Walcott was found in offside.
Finally Lallana broke the deadlock for England in the 5th minute of the injury time. A deflection from the hosts’ defender Peter Pekarik went to Lallana’s foot which he fired up to the goal and hosts’ goalkeeper failed to stop that.
In the other Group F matches, Lithuania vs Slovenia match ended with a draw by 2-2 while Scotland beat Malta by 5-1. With the two back-to-back goals from Chernykh (32′) and Slivka (34′), hosts Lithuania went ahead to 2-0. Later visitors Slovenia survived in the match with the 2 goals from Krhin and Cesar. While Krhin opened the account for the visitors in 77 minutes, Cesar equalised the scoreline with the very last minute goal.
On the other hand, 9-man Malta lost the home match against Scotland in a big margin of 5-1.
2014 World Cup winner Germany began their 2018 World Cup Qualifiers campaign with a comfortable win against Norway in the Group C encounter. German star Thomas Muller scored twice in 15 and 60 minutes while Joshua Kimmich scored the other goal at just before the half time.
In the other Group C match, visitors Azerbaijan beat 10-man San Marino with the only goal. Ruslan Kurbanov scored the only goal for visitors just before the half-time. In the 52 minutes, Cristian Brolli from San Marino was shown red card as the hosts down to 10-man.
In another Group C encounter, Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland remained a goalless draw at the end.
In the Group E clashes, hosts Denmark beat Armenia with the only goal from Eriksen (17’) while other two matches ended draw. Kazakhstan vs Poland ended a 2-2 draw while Romania-Montenegro match scoreline was 1-1 at the end.
Brief Scores:
Group C
San Marino 0 – 1 Azerbaijan
Czech Republic 0 – 0 Northern Ireland
Norway 0 – 3 Germany
Group E
Denmark 1 – 0 Armenia
Kazakhstan 2 – 2 Poland
Romania 1 – 1 Montenegro
Group F
Lithuania 2 – 2 Slovenia
Slovakia 0 – 1 England
Malta 1 – 5 Scotland
Group Standings after the end of Round 1
Group C
| Position | Team | Matches | Won | Drawn | Lost | GD | Points |
| 1 | Germany | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +3 | 3 |
| 2 | Azerbaijan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 3 |
| 3 | Czech Republic | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Northern Ireland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | San Marino | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 6 | Norway | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 0 |
(Note: GD = goals differences)
Group E
| Position | Team | Matches | Won | Drawn | Lost | GD | Points |
| 1 | Denmark | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 3 |
| 2 | Poland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Montenegro | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Romania | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Armenia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
(Note: GD = goals differences)
Group F
| Position | Team | Matches | Won | Drawn | Lost | GD | Points |
| 1 | Scotland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +4 | 3 |
| 2 | England | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 3 |
| 3 | Slovenia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Lithuania | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Slovakia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 6 | Malta | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 0 |
(Note: GD = goals differences)