Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2020 från World Soccer

STAY INFORMED STAY INSPIRED. Great reasons to give a subscription Pay just £39.95 for 13 issues of World Soccer Save 48% off the cover price Never miss an issue – delivered directly to their door Subscribe online at shop.kelsey.co.uk/WSC1220 or call 01959 543 747 quote code WSC1220 Calls charged at your standard network rate. Lines are open 8.30am-5.30pm Monday to Friday. *Terms and conditions: Offer available for UK customers only. You will pay £39.95 for13 issues saving 48%. For overseas rates please visit shop.kelsey.co.uk/WSC. Offer closes 31 December 2020. Full UK subscription rate for13 issues is £77.87, USA & EU £91, RoW £98. Here at Kelsey Publishing we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services…

NEWCASTLE UNITED FANS Fans of the Magpies boycotted their payper-view fixture with Manchester United and instead donated the £14.95 fee to food banks, raising over £20,000. The move was in stark contrast to the club’s owner, Mike Ashley, who has banked £7 million in season-ticket sales in spite of fans being unable to attend games since the start of the pandemic. CHRIS ODOI-ATSEM In October 2018, the DC United defender was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and spent a gruelling two months in chemotherapy battling the disease. After making a full recovery, he returned to MLS in May, and in October his inspiring comeback continued as he scored his first-ever goal. “Just to be able to be healthy and help the team on the field and get a win,…

Dream of a European Super League inches closer Progress towards a European Super League is the inevitable outcome of football’s pandemic panic. The earliest possible start date is 2027 (with 2030 more likely), and two powerful forces are in play: UEFA and FIFA. UEFA is protective of the Champions League. Contracts with broadcasters and sponsors are renewed every three years. Heineken and MasterCard, for example, have just extended their sponsorships (euphemistically known as “partnerships” to pretend it’s not all about money). Every three years, therefore, the clubs demand more money as their right for being the heart of the event. The next shake-up should occur with the 2024-27 cycle. Trouble is, they are split about what they want. The giants want more groups and more group matches, while the minnows,…

OBITUARIES “Everyone knew Nobby would be there when the going got tough, but you shouldn’t underestimate what a good footballer he was too …I’m glad he was my team-mate more often than my opponent” For England fans, Nobby Stiles will always be the cheeky chappy who danced a toothless jig in celebratory delight at Wembley after the final whistle in the 1966 World Cup victory over West Germany. For the rest of the world, Stiles was not so lovable during that tournament – quite the reverse. But time brought respect and then a wiser perspective on an era in which referees felt no duty of protection to star names and every manager fielded a midfield enforcer. Stiles was a committed servant of England and Manchester United, who never shirked an…

It’s difficult to fathom exactly what’s happened with Mesut Ozil at Arsenal. The 32-yea-rold was the Gunners’ record signing when he arrived from Real Madrid for £42.4 million in 2013, but now looks set to see out the final months of his contract without playing a game, having being omitted from Mikel Arteta’s Premier League and Europa League squads. If you ask the World Cup winner, he’s convinced that he is being punished for his criticism of the persecution of Uighur Muslims in China last year. “They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men. The women are forced to marry Chinese men,” he said…

“I do my job…the rest doesn’t matter to me. [Footballers talk] about music, about women, about fashion, about shoes, about bags, about jewellery, about haircuts.” As Cristiano Ronaldo demonstrated in 2015 when asked about FIFA’s corruption scandal, footballers generally do not like to raise their heads above the parapets and speak about controversial subjects. But Marcus Rashford is different. To be fair, the 23-year-old would argue that the cause he is speaking out on – the idea that hungry children are fed properly in the UK – is not controversial at all, and should not even be up for debate. To re-cap, since the UK went into lockdown back in March, Rashford has been on a mission to tackle child poverty in the UK, teaming up with FareShare, a charity…

Social media can be a despairing and depressing place at the best of times, but for women working in football it can be an absolute cesspit. On August 26, Sky Sports announced that they would not be renewing the contracts of Soccer Saturday regulars Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier. Almost immediately, Alex Scott was bombarded with abuse on Twitter, accused of replacing the long-serving trio by benefitting from some kind of positive discrimination. Sadly it was not the first such instance, nor the last. “I definitely take social media for what it is now,” she tells World Soccer. “I have had so much support that’s really lifted me up.” Among her supporters was Ian Wright. The former Arsenal striker was incandescent: “I’ve had to pull over the…

Paris Saint-Germain’s big-spending president and chief executive – who has splashed out a massive €1.2 billion on player signings in his nine-year reign at the Parc des Princes – at long last is basking in the warm glow of European competition relevance. After year upon year of self-inflicted woes in the Champions League – not one single semi-final appearance in seven attempts – Al Khelaifi’s charges suddenly and unexpectedly came good last season, progressing all the way to the final before succumbing to Bayern Munich. Cue torrents of relief in the PSG high command. Despite the club’s domestic dominance (winning seven of the last eight Ligue1 titles), repeated failures on the continental stage clearly had whittled away at the French club’s elite credibility. For PSG’s owners, the oil-rich Gulf state…

2020 was an extremely eventful year for midfield magician Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian playmaker had a front-row seat for many of the year’s biggest footballing stories: he played 38 games in all competitions for the all-conquering Bayern Munich side, including their infamous 8-2 thrashing of his parent club – a game in which he scored twice after appearing as a late substitute – before returning to Barcelona to find his club in total disarray. So far he has established himself as a key member of Ronald Koeman’s new-look side at the Nou Camp. We catch up with the 28-year-old on his remarkable year. “Did it feel strange returning to Barcelona having scored against them in last season’s Champions League quarter-final? It is a strange feeling but at the time I…

Four of South America’s ten countries bade farewell to the Copa Libertadores at the end of the group phase: Peru (for the seventh straight year), Venezuela (the fourth, and the tenth in the last eleven), Chile (for the fifth year in six) and Colombia (for the third time in four). The latter is the most surprising. Since Atletico Nacional won the title in 2016, only one Colombian side has made it to the knockout rounds – all the more disappointing given that Ecuador, its much smaller neighbour, has three teams in the last 16. The two Quito-based clubs – 2008 champions LDU and reigning Sudamericana holders Independiente del Valle – have been strong recent performers, aided by the altitude of their city. The shock was Delfin, from the coastal city…

Saturday October 10 BRAZIL: Brazil beat Bolivia 5-0, extending their unbeaten home run in World Cup qualifiers to 43 wins and12 draws in 55 games. Sunday October 11 EUROPE: In the Nations League, England beat Belgium 2-1, France draw 0-0 with Portugal and Croatia beat Sweden 2-1, while Erling Haaland scores another hat-trick in Norway’s 4-0 win over Romania, taking his record to six goals in six caps. ENGLAND: The Sunday Telegraph reveals Project Big Picture, a plan to revolutionise English football. CHINA: Wuhan Jiangda become Chinese Women’s Super League champions by beating Jiangsu Suning 4-0 in the play-off final. Monday October 12 AUSTRALIA: Western Sydney Wanderers announce the departure of head coach Jean-Paul de Marigny, while Perth Glory confirm the departure of long-serving football director Jacob Burns. Tuesday October 13…

Looking back over the past 12 months, it feels slightly strange to be ending this year with an awards issue. With the possible exception of Zoom, there haven’t been many winners in 2020. Yet for Bayern Munich, it has been a year to truly remember. The German and European champions collected an incredible five trophies, while playing positively irresistible football. We’ve added three more awards to their pile, and it’s fair to say that they were absolute runaway winners in each category. Similarly, in the inaugural Women’s awards, Lyon and their coach Jean-Luc Vasseur stormed to victory, just as they did in the Champions League for the fifth season in a row. Yet while the French side won everything in sight once again, one award has evaded them. Chelsea’s Pernille…

SEASON RANKINGS Cumulative votes through the season GOALKEEPERS Edouard Mendy (Chelsea) 4 Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) 3 Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan) 2 Andrea Consigli (Sassuolo) 1 Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) 1 Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) 1 Alex Remiro (Real Sociedad) 1 DEFENDERS Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) 11 Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) 4 Angelino (RB Leipzig) 3 Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich) 3 Andy Robertson (Liverpool) 3 Ben Chilwell (Chelsea) 2 Theo Hernandez (Milan) 2 Thomas Meunier (Borussia Dortmund) 2 Stefan Savic (Atletico Madrid) 2 Kurt Zouma (Chelsea) 2 David Alaba (Bayern Munich) 1 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) 1 Jordan Amavi (Marseille) 1 Cala (Cadiz) 1 Joao Cancelo (Manchester City) 1 Juan Cuadrado (Juventus) 1 Danilo (Juventus) 1 Dodo (Shakhtar Donetsk) 1 Jose Fonte (Lille) 1 Nicolas Gavory (Standard Liege) 1 Lucas Hernandez (Bayern…

MAMADOU SAKHO Four years on from his suspension for allegedly taking a banned substance, Sakho accepted damages and an apology from WADA concluding that he was innocent. VIVIANNE MIEDEMA Not only did the Arsenal striker break the WSL goal record, she did it in style, scoring a hattrick against Tottenham in the North London derby to reach 52 goals in just 50 matches – overtaking Nikita Parris. SERGIO RAMOS After becoming the first defender in Real Madrid history to reach the milestone of100 goals, he then joined Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon as the most-capped European male footballer ever. JULIAN NAGELSMANN The RB Leipzig coach was not keen to talk about his “special suit” after they were thumped 5-0 by Manchester United: “Don’t talk about my clothes…I’m a football coach, not a…

IFAB is not fit for purpose Not a spectacular year, 1883. Karl Marx died; Mussolini was born. Pinocchio and Treasure Island were published. In the USA, the Brooklyn Bridge opened. But in London, for supporters of the increasingly popular sport of football, there was a happening that looked to have great significance: the formation of IFAB, the International Football Association Board, marking the sport’s arrival as an international force. Except, it didn’t really. IFAB was fraudulently named. It was formed as the body responsible for the sport’s rules, which it pompously called laws. It had four representatives, from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Four regions of the same sovereign country, the United Kingdom: nothing the least bit international about that. IFAB was simply an inter-regional panel trying to make…

The careers of Brazilian coaches Luiz Felipe Scolari and Vanderlei Luxemburgo have been strangely intertwined. The pair rose together in the mid-90s, when they were such fierce rivals that they even exchanged shoves on the touchline. Then came the Brazil national team. Luxemburgo took Brazil into the 2002 qualifiers and was sacked – only to see Scolari complete the job by leading Ronaldo and company to their fifth trophy. They each had unsuccessful spells in European club football, Luxemburgo with Real Madrid and Scolari with Chelsea. And if Scolari can point to 2002 and his time in charge of Portugal, he was also Brazil’s coach for that extraordinary 7-1 thrashing by the Germans on home ground in 2014. And now Luxemburgo leaves the arena at the very moment when Scolari…

It was a moment many Barcelona fans had been waiting for – club president Josep Maria Bartomeu had arranged a televised speech to announce his resignation. “I am communicating my resignation from my position of president, along with my entire board of directors. It’s a composed and relaxed decision, agreed with all my fellow directors,” the 57-year-old confirmed. “The easiest thing after the Champions [League defeat] was to resign, but one had to take decisions amid an unprecedented global crisis,” he added. “Who would have ensured that Messi stayed? Who would have hired a new coach? “What we have experienced these last few months exceeds any limit. Me, my family and colleagues have been insulted and threatened.” The speech marked the end of a whirlwind period for the Spanish entrepreneur,…

The Atalanta coach, fresh from steering the provincial Bergamo upstarts to their first-ever Champions League quarterfinal and a second consecutive Serie A bronze medal, would never be a prime candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize. Prickly, headstrong and inclined to hold grudges, he says exactly what he thinks and too bad if others do not appreciate his frankness. But why should he care when his high-flying side are so pleasing on the eye, generous and spectacular? Now in his fifth season at the Atalanta helm, the 62-year-old has succeeded in delivering an astonishing two-for-the-price-of-one deal, combining excellent results over the long term with ratings-busting entertainment value. He’s earned the right to be more than a little superior. Gasperini’s approach to the game is not solely about X’s and O’s, chessboard…

t the start of September, Saba was ready to step up to help Guangzhou R&F adapt to life in the Chinese Super League following the departure of Israeli counterpart and goal machine Eran Zahavi to PSV. Instead, following work by American president Donald Trump, which helped the United Arab Emirates and Israel establish diplomatic relations for the first time (the agreement was signed on September 15 at the White House), Saba found himself in Dubai as the first-ever Israeli to play professionally in an Arab league. “Al Nasr has completed the procedures with Dia Saba…in a contract that extends for two seasons after he successfully passed medical examinations this morning,” the UAE Pro League club said in a September statement. In a football sense, it is a good deal for…

Hans Tilkowski West Germany’s goalkeeper in the 1966 World Cup final. Aged 84. Rob Rensenbrink Scored 14 goals in 46 games for the Netherlands, yet is best remembered for missing the chance to score in the 1974 World Cup final. Aged 72. Harry Gregg The world’s most expensive goalkeeper when he joined Manchester United in 1957, Northern Ireland’s Gregg was a hero of the Munich air disaster. Aged 87. Peter Whittingham Cardiff City legend, also played for Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers. Aged 35. Michel Hidalgo Led France to their first silverware by winning the 1984 Euros. Aged 87. Pape Diouf Became president of Marseille in 2005, making him the first black president of a major European football club. Aged 68. Raddy Antic The only man to have coached Atletico…

“You played 49 games for Manchester United last season, scored 17 goals, then got called up by England. How do you reflect on 2020? It has happened so quickly. With United you can be called in at any time and I was called in to some Europa League games early in the season and took my chance. I took every game as it came and have just been out there playing my football. I’ve got a good group of lads helping me at United, so it’s all good. Have you had time to sit back and pinch yourself at any point? No, not really. Games came quick last season, with the Europa League and all of the other cups, so you had to be ready and focused at all times,…

It was so much less than had been dreamed of, but given a pandemic was raging in the background, the National Women’s Soccer League’s eighth season was as good as could have been hoped for. The World Cup triumph in the summer of 2019, and the mid-season boost of an Olympic campaign, should have been the platform for a breakthrough season in the United States. Instead, NWSL had to scramble to create a safe, deliverable programme to keep the flame alive. That it did, with considerable success, was tribute to the new commissioner Lisa Baird and the league’s staff. Two competitions were held, totalling 41 matches, and the season ended with expansion progressing as planned to Louisville and Los Angeles. True, the truncated fixture list was well short of the111…

Like many competitions around the world, the A-League will look a little different when the doors re-open for the16th season in December – and not just thanks to COVID-19. Naming rights sponsor, Hyundai, will not be its prefix for the first time since the league kicked off in 2005. The South Korean company, which contributed an estimated $6 million per year, pulled out on the back of waning interest in the national competition. At the time of writing, there is no replacement. Broadcast rights holders, Fox Sports, threatened to do the same, before last-ditch negotiations kept them on board, albeit for a vastly reduced rights fee ($32m, down from $57m), and for just one additional season, down from the previous three. With vastly reduced income, the clubs and the players…

The Comoros only joined FIFA15 years ago and then took 11 years to win a qualifier, so their position on top of their Africa Cup of Nations 2022 qualifying group after playing three games was a real surprise. Group G also includes Egypt, Togo and Kenya, and the Comoros kept clean sheets in both of their opening matches, so that standing was no fluke. They began with a shock1-0 win over Togo in Lome then returned home to hold heavyweights Egypt to a 0-0 draw in Moroni, before drawing again – this time1-1 away to Kenya – in November. Those results show the benefits of a decade-long policy of searching the diaspora and allowing a coach and a team to develop. The search for overseas players had begun in earnest…

Is this the season that Antwerp clubs complete a renaissance in Belgian top-flight football after a history of early grandeur, missed opportunities and inconsequential management? In August, Beerschot were promoted to the elite tier following the league’s expansion to18 teams. For weeks, the club had been working towards the second leg of the promotion play-offs against Thai-owned OH Leuven. However, with the new league format the match’s importance was minimised. Beerschot ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, wrapping up the championship and confirming their credentials as an ambitious club. At the same time, Royal Antwerp won the Belgian Cup against Club Brugge1-0 in a demonstration of collective football that exemplified both grit and application. The club’s first silverware in 28 years was a statement. Since a return to the top flight…

It was in October 1986 – now more than 34 years ago – that Somalis last got to see their national team play at home. It was an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier ahead of the 1988 finals in Morocco and, after losing 5-0 away in the first leg in Uganda, the match would have been an exercise in damage limitation rather than hope. But a goalless draw against The Cranes offered some respectability at a time of sudden unease in the country, provoked by a power vacuum caused when long-time strongman Mohamed Siad Barre suffered a car accident that left him both physically and politically weak. The subsequent challenge to his rule saw Somalia quickly slide into unrest and strife and, by 1992, outright civil war. Football took a…

Project Big Picture: right name, rotten vista It was the plan dreamed up by Manchester United and Liverpool - with a little help from some foolish friends – to revamp English football. And it deserved the cascade of criticism it received. The giants painted a panorama of philanthropy, handing out cash to save little clubs from extinction. It was the mask for a naked power grab. Their price was complete control of the sport, and with it freedom to add to their own vast fortunes. Thankfully, their self-serving vision was swiftly rejected. But that doesn’t mean comprehensive change isn’t urgently required. Look, for example, at the stark contrast between £1.2 billion spent on new players by Premier League corporations in one transfer window during a pandemic when money is supposed…

Risk at the heart of frantic start to the season When he was coach of Ajax, Louis van Gaal had a slogan on his office wall. It read: “Quality is the exclusion of coincidence.” For him, football is about control. That lay at the heart of his approach. It’s why he was so focused on the retention of possession, why he would tell wingers never to attempt to beat more than one defender with a run, why he would encourage strikers not to take chances first time. Increasingly, it feels an approach that was very much of its time. Risk now most definitely lies at the heart of modern football. Quite what a fault line that is was clear in the differing views expressed by Roy Keane, working as a…

IN EUROPE Atletico Madrid exploited a La Liga loophole to sign midfielder GEOFFREY KONDOGBIA from Valencia for €10 million in spite of the transfer window being closed. Similarly, Dijon signed striker MOUSSA KONATE from Amiens for €2 million. Following their releases by Watford, forward DANNY WELBECK signed for BRIGHTON, while defender ADRIAN MARIAPPA joined Bristol City. Former Manchester United midfielder RICHIE WELLENS was named Salford City’s new manager, replacing interim boss Paul Scholes. Meanwhile, Barnsley appointed VALERIEN ISMAEL and Mansfield Town hired NIGEL CLOUGH. Fenerbahce appointed ex-midfielder and Turkey legend EMRE BELOZOGLU as their new technical director. ASIA Saudi Arabian giants Al Ittihad announced the signing of Egypt centre-back AHMED HEGAZI on loan from West Bromwich Albion. OUT EUROPE MARCELLO LIPPI, Italy’s 2006 World Cupwinning coach, announced his retirement from…

As Royal Antwerp set the early season pace in the Belgian league and made a strong statement in the Europa League by beating Tottenham Hotspur1-0, so their 24-year-old Cameroonian cult hero Didier Lamkel Ze sits mostly on the subs’ bench. His part in Great Old’s lively start to the 2020-21 campaign has been minimal, coming after a strike over wages during the lockdown that has highlighted his growing image as one of African football’s bad boys. When Antwerp went back to work in June, after the last Belgian season had been hastily declared completed just weeks after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lamkel Ze was holed up in his apartment, just 100 metres from the stadium, refusing to take part in pre-season. “The club must pay me what I’m…

COLOMBIA “Is Everton a nice city?” A beam of neon light pierces the Bogota night sky. An Everton blue, with the pearl white digits of 19 dancing across one side of the Colpatria Tower, radiates through the downtown area of Colombia’s capital city. Social media erupts with tweets, likes and wobbly mobile-phone videos shared of the iconic building – the third tallest in the country – now aglow with national pride. In the past, it has been adorned with an image of the Pope to mark Holiness’ visit to the South American country; now it is commemorating a figure of equal significance to Colombians. The confirmation of James Rodriguez’s move from Real Madrid to Everton is just hours old. Yet already James-mania was again sweeping the country. Ever since Rodriguez’s…

Times are changing in the Women’s Super League. The English top flight is challenging the United States’ NWSL as the top attraction for foreign players, and its clubs are determined to bridge the gap in the Champions League to the likes of Wolfsburg, Paris Saint-Germain and, of course, Lyon. No player demonstrates that more than Harder, the most expensive female player on the planet. Chelsea paid Wolfsburg a reported fee of €300,000 for the 28-year-old Denmark striker, and she looks to be worth every penny. Her numbers are incredible. Last season she scored 38 goals in 33 games in all competitions, including nine in seven in the Champions League. Her tally of 27 goals in 21 league games gave her a second Frauen-Bundesliga Golden Boot, and fired Wolfsburg to their…

Exploding into European football earned Haaland a place in these pages this time last year. It is frankly astonishing that not only has the 20-year-old maintained those levels in 2020, but improved upon them. On the Bundesliga circuit, the Norway striker is known as the “Wunderknaben” – Boy Wonder. If anyone deserves the prodigy label, it is the baby-faced youngster with the muscular presence, voracious desire and a God-given gift for putting the ball in the back of the net. Since joining Dortmund for €20m in January, he has barely paused for breath, scoring seven times in his first three German League outings – a Bundesliga record – and going on to register an incredible 15 goals in18 starts; so much for the initial plan of the Dortmund management to…

If there was a transfer system for football bosses then Seifert would probably be top of most people’s wanted list. Yet he would pass almost unnoticed in a crowd of fans. That is fine. It’s the way he likes it. Not for Seifert the politicking and posturing of so many administrative contemporaries. The 51-year-old CEO of the German Bundesliga prefers to focus on the job in hand which, this year more than ever, has been all-consuming. Seifert, more than any other individual, deserves the credit for putting European football back on its feet after the potential knockout blow of the COVID-19 pandemic. His calm and efficient leadership saw Germany take the lead in demonstrating that club competition could be made to work, whatever the challenges. England, Italy and Spain followed…

Ridle BAKU Wolfsburg In a sentence Germany Under-21 force of nature right-back, who, prior to earning himself a recent move from Mainz to Wolfsburg, was rumoured to be on Paris Saint-Germain’s watch-list. What they say “He has a flair for winning the ball and plays with an explosiveness, able to make things happen with his tremendous acceleration. He has set the bar very high. I always thought he’d make a great pro. He’s a nice lad as well. He has a 24-hour smile.” Dirk Kunert, Baku’s coach for Mainz’s Under-23s “He’s made great strides defensively. In one-on-one situations, he’s strong and robust. He has also improved in the attacking phase. He has much more potential to exploit. He’s very much on the right road. He has developed really well and…

2020 has been a year of interruption, improvisation and unity in Major League Soccer, but perhaps the most notable aspect of its 25th season is that there has been a season at all. No sooner had it begun in late February, it was put on hold in March by the global pandemic that provides a backdrop for the football stories covered on these pages, and for those reading them. The quirks of MLS – its schedule, unique rules and regulations, and tournament structure – make it one of the best-equipped leagues in world football to veer off-script, as it did in July when returning with the imaginatively titled MLS is Back Tournament, played in a bubble at Walt Disney World, Orlando. Three group-stage matches at the tournament counted towards the…

Asia is so big that the AFC Champions League is split into two geographic zones with the best teams from each meeting only in the final. The western half has already produced its finalist, but Iran’s Persepolis will have to wait until mid-December to find out their opponents from the east. The spread of the coronavirus caused the group stage to be suspended in March, and then again in June and August. The western zone finally restarted in September in Qatar. The 2022 World Cup host was selected as a “bio-secure” hub where the rest of the group games and the knockout stages (all reduced to a single leg) could take place as free as possible from the effects of COVID-19. It wasn’t that free however. Right from the start,…

FRIENDLIES Oct 1 - Mexico City Mexico 3 (Martin 6, Pineda 28, Cordova 36) Guatemala 0 HT: 3-0. Ref: Hernandez (Mex) Oct 7 - Larnaca Cyprus1 (Loizou 32) Czech Republic 2 (Holes13, Darida 43 pen) HT: 1-2. Ref: Tschudi (Sui) Oct 7 - Herning Denmark 4 (Olsen 22, Eriksen 27 pen, Maehle 32, Cornelius 45) Faroe Islands 0 HT: 4-0. Ref: Nyberg (Swe) Oct 7 - Tallinn Estonia1 (Marin 58) Lithuania 3 (Novikovas14, Sirgedas 32, Novikovas 46) HT: 0-2. Ref: Munukka (Fin) Oct 7 - Ta’Qali Malta 2 (Nwoko 8, Caruana 90) Gibraltar 0 HT: 1-0. Ref: Popov (Bul) Oct 7 - Podgorica Montenegro1 (Ivanovic 90+1) Latvia1 (Tarasovs 26) HT: 0-1. Ref: Sehovic (Bih) Oct 7 - Luxembourg Luxembourg1 (Rodrigues 73 pen) Liechtenstein 2 (Wolfinger 24, Hasler 62 pen) HT:…