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Sport

08th Sep 2010

McManus spares Scotland’s blushes; England and France win

Stephen McManus spared Scotland’s blushes as he netted a 97th minute winner, while England picked up a deserved away win.

JOE

Stephen McManus spared Scotland’s blushes as he netted a 97th minute winner, while England picked up a deserved away win.

Scotland were booed off at half time with the score at 0-0. The Hampden crowd’s anger turned to astonishment early in the second half when Mario Frick gave Liechtenstein the lead with a great strike.

Scotland equalised in the 63rd minute through Rangers’ Kenny Miller, but looked like they were headed for a humiliating draw.

Then, in the seventh minute of injury time, Barry Robson played in a corner and fellow Middlesbrough player Stephen McManus rose highest and scored with a header.

Scotland are now joint top of Group I with Lithuania, who shocked the Czech Republic, winning 1-0 at the Sparta Stadium.

England had a more comfortable evening than the Scots, winning 3-1 away to Switzerland thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney, Adam Johnson and Darren Bent.

There was some bad news for England, though, as Theo Walcott picked up an ankle injury in the 9th minute.

England’s six points from two games puts them joint top of group G with Montengro, who managed an away victory against Bulgaria. Stanimir Stoilov resigned as Bulgarian manager immediately after the loss.

In Group D, France recovered from their opening match loss against Belarus, and had a terrific 2-0 win away to Bosnia, thanks to goals from Benzema and Malouda, while in Group H, Portugal lost 1-0 away to Norway.

In Ireland’s group, Slovakia had a surprise 1-0 victory away to Russia to put them joint top of Group B, while Argentina defeated World Champions Spain 4-1 in a friendly.

Results:

Albania 1-0 Luxembourg

Austria 2-0 Kazakhstan

Belarus 0-0 Romania

Bosnia-H 0-2 France

Bulgaria 0-1 Montenegro

Croatia 0-0 Greece

Czech Republic 0-1 Lithuania

Denmark 1-0 Iceland

FYR Macedonia 2-2 Armenia

Georgia 0-0 Israel

Germany 6-1 Azerbaijan

Hungary 2-1 Moldova

Italy 5-0 Faroe Islands

Malta 0-2 Latvia

Netherlands 2-1 Finland

Norway 1-0 Portugal

Rep of Ireland 3-1 Andorra

Russia 0-1 Slovakia

Scotland 2-1 Liechtenstein

Serbia 1-1 Slovenia

Sweden 6-0 San Marino

Switzerland 1-3 England

Turkey 3-2 Belgium

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