The battle in Glasgow, the defeat in Andorra la Vella and the victory of Ukraine in Helsinki: how the 7th round of selection for the 2022 World Cup ended

Debut success of Ukraine

The Ukrainian national team managed to win the first victory only in the seventh round of the qualifying stage.

All the previous five matches were drawn by the neighbors.

They shared points both with the reigning world champions, the French, and with the Kazakhs, and with the Finns.

On Saturday, the unsuccessful streak was finally interrupted in Helsinki, where the guests beat Finland, a direct competitor in the fight for getting into the joints, - 2: 1.

The wards of Alexander Petrakov successfully started the meeting and opened the scoring already in the fourth minute.

Andriy Yarmolenko scored a kick from outside the penalty area with a "non-working" right foot.

The opponent responded with a goal from his main star Teemu Pukki.

But the Ukrainians immediately took the lead again.

Roman Yaremchuk, who had previously assisted a partner, this time distinguished himself on his own.

The hosts, despite all their efforts, were no longer able to break through Andriy Pyatov.

An experienced goalkeeper established two statistical achievements at once.

Firstly, he had his 100th game for the national team.

Secondly, at the age of 37 years, 3 months and 11 days, he became the oldest footballer in her history.

Bosnia and Herzegovina also won a debut victory in the qualifier, which also continues to fight for the second line in Group D. in Zenica.

Workers' rout from Sweden

If in the previous quartet France practically secured a direct ticket to the world championship, then in Group B three teams are still competing for it - Spain, Sweden and Greece. The last two teams on Saturday won regular victories. The Scandinavians defeated Kosovo at home - 3: 0. Victor Klasson helped them open an account. After hitting the midfielder of Krasnodar with his head, the opponent's footballer played with his hand, and the referee, after a few minutes, who had gone to watch the replays, pointed to the “point”.

A penalty for a similar violation of the rules decided everything in the confrontation between the Greeks and Georgia.

Until the 90th minute, the Greeks could not open an account until Guram Giorbelidze forced the referee to appoint a penalty kick.

To accept the correct verdict, he also needed the help of VAR.

As a result, Anastasios Bakasetas scored the penalty spot, and in stoppage time Dimitrios Pelkas doubled the guests' lead - 2: 0.

Now the Swedes are leading in the octet in terms of lost points, who have one point less than the Spaniards, but have a meeting in reserve.

Probably, everything will be decided by the head-to-head confrontation of opponents in November.

The Greeks, who have yet to face both competitors, also retain their chances for the first place.

Sensation from Lithuania

In Group C, Italy and Switzerland continue the battle for a direct hit on the world championship. While the reigning champions of the continent were occupied in the League of Nations, the Alpines at home won the most important victory over Northern Ireland - 2: 0 and caught up with Scuadra Azzurra on lost points. The meeting turned out to be not easy for the favorite, but at the end of each half he made a crushing counterattack and scored. Ex-CSKA midfielder Steven Zuber managed to open the score. And the guests for most of the game were forced to act in the minority after the removal of Jamal Lewis.

In another confrontation of the octet, a loud sensation broke out.

Lithuania, which had not scored a single point in qualifying before, unexpectedly turned out to be stronger than Bulgaria at home - 3: 1.

Along the way, the Balts interrupted a nine-match streak of defeats in all tournaments and helped Switzerland practically guarantee itself the second line.

After all, the backlog of the Bulgarians and the Northern Irish is now six points.

Fire at a stadium in Andorra

On the eve of the meeting between Andorra and England, a fire broke out at the Nacional stadium.

The fire seriously damaged the curb lawn, as well as the bench.

But this did not prevent the match, and local fans witnessed the expected defeat of the outsider with a score of 0: 5.

The women's team of judges, led by the Ukrainian Ekaterina Monzul, did not count the first goal of the guests for the authorship of Ben Chilwell, but after consulting with colleagues at VAR, they changed their mind. In the future, the British managed to distinguish themselves four more times. The only positive moment for the hosts was the penalty shot by José Gomez from James Ward-Prause, but the Southampton midfielder immediately finished off the ball into the net. And in the end, even the goalkeeper Sam Johnston scored a point for performance in the British squad, who, from his own half, kicked the ball into Jack Grealish's course.

With a similar score, the Polish national team defeated San Marino - 5: 0.

Surprisingly, in a meeting with such a modest opponent, they never managed to score the top scorer in the history of the team, Robert Lewandowski.

Yes, and a large number of goals did not help her return to second place, because Albania snatched a victory with a minimum score over Hungary in a parallel meeting.

However, on Tuesday the rivals will meet in Tirana.

An incredible ending from Scotland

Denmark remains the only team that has not lost points in the European qualification for the 2022 World Cup so far.

The current bronze medalist of the European Championship won all matches in group F. On Saturday, Kasper Yulmann's wards, as expected, defeated Moldova on the road - 4: 0.

They scored all the goals before the break.

However, much more important is the confrontation between Scotland and Israel, which are fighting to get into the joints. And this meeting also turned out to be rich in goals. It started very badly for the British. Already in the fifth minute, Eran Zahavi sent the ball on target from the free kick. The hosts won back in the middle of the first half thanks to a beautiful shot by John McGinn. However, after just a couple of minutes, the guests took the lead again after playing the set.

At the end of the first half, Steve Clark's team earned a penalty, but Lyndon Dykes played it extremely ingeniously, and Omar Marciano deflected the kick right in the center with his foot.

However, after this failure, the Scots only got angry and showed character in the second half of the meeting.

To begin with, Dykes corrected himself by closing the serve from the flank.

The denouement came in the 94th minute, when Scott McTominay, after a corner kick from close range, sent a shell on target - 3: 2.

So Scotland took an important step towards taking second place, because the team is four points away from Israel and Austria three rounds before the finish.