The defeat of Turkey in Amsterdam, the salvation of Kazakhstan in Zenica, Griezmann's double in Lyon: how the 6th round of selection for the 2022 World Cup began

Enchanting victory of the Netherlands

Before the start of the sixth round, an extremely intriguing situation developed in Group G. Turkey occupied the first place, while the Netherlands and Norway lagged behind it by one point.

In addition, the intrigue was twisted by the face-to-face meeting of the orange with the leader in Amsterdam.

It seemed that the fans would witness a real battle.

However, in reality, the guests were humiliated at the Johan Cruyff Arena.

The score speaks for itself - 1: 6.

Even more revealing is the statistics of shots - 29:10 in favor of the hosts (13: 2 - on target).

Louis van Gaal's team scored a lot and for every taste.

Already on the 54th second, Davi Klassen put an end to a beautiful combination and opened the scoring.

And in the 16th minute Memphis Depay scored, taking advantage of the perfect throw from a partner.

After that, the game was actually done.

Moreover, even before the break, the Barcelona footballer converted a penalty kick, and the guests were in the minority - two yellow cards were received by the central defender Caglar Söyuncu.

Before the second half began, Depay scored a hat-trick.

In parallel, he managed to mark at once a couple of statistical achievements.

First, he caught up with Serb Aleksandr Mitrovic with seven goals in the qualifying scorers race.

Secondly, he climbed into the top 10 most productive players in the history of the Netherlands national team.

With 33 goals, he shares tenth place with Cruyff and Abe Lenstroy.

For the Russian fans, a landmark event was the accurate kick of Spartak midfielder Gus Til, who is currently on loan for Feyenoord.

He came on as a substitute half an hour before the final whistle and managed to score his debut goal for the national team.

The Turks, on the other hand, can add only the prestige ball performed by Cengiz Under.

In Amsterdam, they not only suffered the biggest defeat in their history in 34 years, but also dropped to third place in the group.

Leadership with the Netherlands is now shared by Norway, which, as expected, defeated Gibraltar at home thanks to the hat-trick of Erling Holland - 5: 1.

The forward of Borussia Dortmund had a productive September segment, having distinguished himself five times.

Denmark's unmistakable performance

Denmark also won the match with an advantage of five goals.

Having won three victories in a row, Israel went to Copenhagen with the hope of extending a successful streak and closing the gap with the leader of Group F. At first, everything went well for the guests.

Already in the tenth minute, Eran Zahavi ran away one on one with Kasper Schmeichel and opened the scoring.

However, the referee, having watched the replay, canceled the goal due to a controversial offside position.

In the future, only the hosts scored.

Moreover, in their composition, five different players were scored by goals: Yussuf Poulsen, Simon Kjaer, Andreas Skov Olsen, Thomas Delaney and substitute Andreas Cornelius.

In many ways, the branded weapon - standards - helped to achieve such an impressive defeat for the current bronze medalists of the European Championship.

Kasper Yulmann's team scored three times after serving from free throws.

While the Danes are doing everything to go to Qatar a year later.

Their assets include six wins in six meetings, 22 goals scored and zero conceded.

This is the only team that did not allow opponents to hit their own goal in the qualifying stage of the 2022 World Cup in Europe.

Fighting character of Kazakhstan

Not a single day of qualification is complete without an incredible rescue in the referee's added time.

The reporting was no exception.

Kazakhstan on the road left from defeat in the match with Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 95th minute - 2: 2.

Moreover, it was the guests who opened the scoring at the beginning of the second half, but the Bosnians showed character.

The leader and main star of the team, Miralem Pjanic, made the difference almost single-handedly.

First, he converted a rather controversial penalty, and then performed an assist to Luca Menalo.

But among the neighbors there was a hero - CSKA midfielder Baktiyor Zainutdinov, who recovered from an injury.

In the course of one of the last attacks, Talgat Baysufinov's wards earned a rather dangerous free kick, and the footballer struck with the bottom just into the far corner.

It is curious that less than a week ago Kazakhstan shared points with Ukraine at home with a similar score and also escaped defeat in the 95th minute.

On the whole, Group D turns out to be unique in terms of the number of draws.

Here the rivals could not determine the strongest in eight out of 12 fights.

France's long-awaited success

Even the reigning world champions, the French, who parted with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine in September, were exposed to this "virus".

And taking into account the World Cup, they did not know victories in five matches in a row.

On Tuesday, the tricolors finally interrupted their unsuccessful streak in the home confrontation with Finland - 2: 0.

The hosts throughout the meeting did not give rise to doubts about their superiority (64% of ball possession, 20 shots on goal and 766 passes) and could well bring the matter to defeat.

And they scored only Antoine Griezmann this evening.

In the middle of the first half, he played an elegant wall with Karim Benzema and sent a projectile to the far side from outside the penalty area.

And right after the break, he threw the ball into the net from a rather acute angle past Lukasz Hradecki.

The double allowed the striker to reach third place in the list of the top scorers in the history of the French national team.

With 41 goals, he shares it with Michel Platini himself.

Only Olivier Giroud (46) and Thierry Henry (51) are ahead.

In the current qualification, the striker, who has returned to Atlético, has already distinguished himself five times.

Croatia's key defeat

But the main rival of the Russian national team in the fight for a direct ticket to the World Cup, Croatia, thanks to a crushing victory over Slovenia, came out on top in the H sextet, ahead of the domestic team in additional indicators.

Actually, the current silver medalists of the world championship began qualification in March with a defeat in Ljubljana with a minimum score.

It is not surprising that at home they were eager to take revenge.

In fact, only Jan Oblak stood in their way this time, who made seven saves.

However, in several episodes he was also powerless.

The defenders, on the other hand, made a huge number of mistakes and simply could not cope with the pressure.

Moreover, all three goals were scored by players with experience in the RPL.

The ex-striker of “Rubin” Marco Levaya opened the scoring in the 33rd minute.

The former Spartak midfielder Mario Pashalich doubled the advantage of the “checkers” after the break.

And Nikola Vlašić, who recently transferred from CSKA to West Ham, brought the matter to the point of defeat in added time by the referee.

The last goal turned out to be especially important for the team, because thanks to him, she was ahead of Russia.

Valery Karpin's charges have a goal difference of +6, while the opponent's goal is now +7.