MINSK, 10 June 2005 — Belarus failed to capitalize on their possession as Scotland held out for a 0-0 draw in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, leaving both with ground to make up on the Group Five frontrunners.
Belarus dominated for long periods and Scotland, missing several key players through injury and suspension, had their goalkeeper Craig Gordon to thank for preserving a clean sheet.
With VfB Stuttgart playmaker Alexander Gleb directing the Belarus attack, the home team piled on the pressure after the break, but Gordon made numerous saves to keep the visitors in the game.
In Athens, Ukraine stunned European champions Greece with a late second-half goal to edge closer to a World Cup spot and throw the rest of European Zone Group Two wide open.
Their win puts them firmly on course for automatic qualification for the 2006 finals in Germany, leaving Turkey, Greece and Denmark to fight it out for second place.The Greeks are now third, one point behind Turkey who beat bottom team Kazakhstan 6-0 away.
Also in Group Two, striker Soren Larsen marked his second appearance for Denmark by scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over Albania. The win kept alive the home team’s chances of snatching second spot in Group Two. The Danes are fourth in the table with 12 points from eight games.
In Constanta, Romania, striker Gigel Bucur scored twice on his debut to help Romania beat Armenia 3-0. The Romanians are third in European Group One, six points adrift of the Netherlands and five behind the Czech Republic. Armenia are equal bottom with Andorra for four points each.
Meanwhile, Japan, Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, the Asia’s ‘Big Four’ all made sure of their places in the draw for the finals in Leipzig on Dec. 9 with convincing wins across the continent.
Joining those four and Germany, automatically qualified as the host nation, were Argentina, after they beat Brazil 3-1 in their top-of-the-table South American qualifier in Buenos Aires. The victory guaranteed them a top four finish in the 10-team group and a place in the last 32. Despite the defeat, Brazil appear certain to reach the finals.
Argentina stunned their opponents by rushing to a 3-0 halftime lead with two goals from striker Hernan Crespo, who took his tally in the tournament to seven, and a world-class strike from Juan Roman Riquelme.
Behind Argentina and Brazil (27 points), Ecuador (23 points), Paraguay (22) and Colombia and Chile (20) appear to be fighting for the other two direct places or fifth spot, which earns a two-leg playoff against the winners of the Oceania region.
The Czech Republic also scored six — taking their tally to 14 in five days after their 8-1 win over Andorra on Saturday. They beat Macedonia 6-1 to keep the pressure on Netherlands in Group One. Jan Koller was the Czech hero, scoring four goals in 11 minutes to take his all-time record for his country to 39 goals — and that after Macedonia had scored first.
The Dutch retained first place with a 4-0 win in Finland and have 22 points with four matches to play, one point more than the Czechs.
Portugal took another step toward Germany with a 1-0 win in Estonia that took them on to 20 points and kept them three points clear of Slovakia, 4-0 winners in Luxembourg, in Group Three.
Ireland moved top of a tightly bunched Group Four with a 2-0 win in the Faroe Islands that lifted them to 13 points.
Group Seven is also finely balanced after Spain struggled to a 1-1 draw with Bosnia in Valencia in a match that brought down the curtain on a busy European night in sensational fashion.
Bosnia, 1-0 up with a 39th minute goal from Zvjezdan Misimovic, had substitute Nedim Halilovic sent off after 88 minutes and Mirsad Beslija dismissed six minutes into stoppage time. Spain then equalized through Carlos Marchena in the seventh minute of added time to move a point clear of Serbia & Montengero at the top, having played one more match.
In CONCACAF region qualifying, the Mexico and the US both recorded comfortable wins to remain on course for the finals.
Mexico beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-0 to stay top of the six-team final qualifying group on 13 points, one clear of the US who eased to a 3-0 win in Panama. Costa Rica edged Guatemala 3-2 in the other match to move into third place on seven points at the halfway stage.
The top three teams qualify automatically for Germany.
