Scotland's victory over Denmark, Italy's getting into the joints and Kane's poker: what are the memories of the matches of the 10th round of selection for the 2022 World Cup

Defeat for a ticket to the World Cup

Group C gave fans the most unpredictable outcome of the current qualifying round.

Having played in a draw in the previous round, Italy and Switzerland continued to share the first place with an equal number of points.

To win a direct ticket to Qatar, bypassing the sieve of play-offs, each of them needed to play the last game better than their competitors.

For the European champions, this task seemed easier.

For Roberto Mancini's charges, the difference between goals scored and conceded was two points better, and it is by this criterion that teams are evaluated in case of equal points.

The Swiss had to not only defeat Bulgaria in the final round, but also try to defeat it.

The first half in Lucerne did not show that Murat Yakin's team was ready to act.

The Swiss played ten corners, but achieved only one hit to the post.

But after the break, balls began to fly into Ivan Karadzhov's gates constantly, and if not for the two goals canceled due to offside, the hosts could have celebrated the victory with a tennis score, but 4: 0 was enough for them to get into the World Cup, even if Italy would have beaten Northern Ireland with a minimal margin in a parallel match.

Zero Draw Italy

However, this did not happen.

The Italians failed to crack the strong defenses in Belfast.

In the first half, Mancini's wards possessed a tangible territorial advantage, but it did not pass at least in dangerous moments.

Twice the guests' attacks were ruined by an offside position, which only added tension to this match.

In the second 45-minute, the Northern Irishmen even managed to snap one time when George Saville almost shot Gianluigi Donnarumma from ten meters. After that, the Italians again began to attack and beat from any convenient position, but did not bring their attacks to the end. And when it became known that the Swiss were successfully fulfilling their condition for getting to the world championship, the initiative again began to pass to the home team. At the very end of the match, they could snatch victory when, due to an untimely exit from the penalty area, Donnarumma left the goal empty, but Leonardo Bonucci backed him up in time.

The final whistle recorded a goalless draw.

Italy for the second time in a row missed the opportunity to get to the World Cup directly and will now participate in the play-offs.

With their draw, Squadra Azzurra will have the status of a seeded team and will play the first game at home - earlier the teams of Russia and Portugal achieved the same consolation.

End of Danish winning streak

Group F had no such passions. Denmark secured a World Cup ticket back in October with a continuous winning streak, while Scotland recently secured second place. But in the final round, when the two leaders met in Glasgow, they had something to fight for. The Danes had a chance to win all ten matches of the qualifying tournament group stage and repeat the achievements of the Netherlands (World Cup 2006), Spain (World Cup 2010) and Germany (World Cup 2018). The Scots needed three points to play the first match in March at home.

In the end, the motivation of the "Tartan Army" turned out to be stronger.

In the first half, the hosts played one corner after another non-stop, and on the eighth attempt it gave the result.

Defender John Southtar scored with an accurate header, who had not played for the national team for two years before, but could have played for Australia, as his older brother Harry did.

At the same time, if we discard the play of standards, the two teams showed approximately equal play, only the Danes could not bring their chances to the end.

The final victory for the Scots brought another goal in the performance of Che Adams in the 86th minute.

The islanders have scored 23 points in the current qualifying round and overtook the Russian national team in a dispute for the title of the most productive team, which took second place.

Poland's defeat without Lewandowski

In Group I, the intrigue formally lasted until the last round, although in fact the first two places in it were distributed last week. England and Poland were separated by three points, so in theory Robert Lewandowski's team could still seize the lead in case of a victory over Hungary with a large score. But since the British at the same time met with San Marino, they could not count on the fact that they would be left without glasses.

In addition, Poland itself was unable to fulfill the necessary conditions in the end.

Head coach Paulo Sousa let Lewandowski go home, and also could not count on the help of Grzegorz Krychowiak due to disqualification.

The Hungarians, on the other hand, took the last game of the qualifying cycle seriously and in the 37th minute they opened the scoring through the efforts of Andras Schaefer.

The home team was later compared thanks to the goal of Karol Svidersky, but the victory still went to the guests - Daniel Gazdag brought three points.

Double-digit defeat of San Marino

Efforts on the part of Poland were indeed in vain, as England was not going to lose to the team, which occupies the last 210th place in the FIFA rankings.

Many of the most famous players of Gareth Southgate did not come to San Marino, but even this did not add to the chances of the national team, which lost all nine matches and scored only one goal in the meeting with the Poles.

But Harry Kane remained in the British squad in order to further climb the bombing ladder of his national team.

In the last match with Albania, he scored a hat-trick and caught up in fourth place with Jimmy Greaves.

Until the next line, occupied by Gary Lineker, the striker was four goals short.

This is exactly how much he scored in San Marino in the first half.

After a goal by Harry Maguire and an own goal, Filippo Fabbri Kane converted two penalties for handball and scored twice more from the field.

After that, he has scored 48 goals for the national team.

Kane also became the first Englishman in 94 years to score a hat-trick in two matches in a row.

Finally, in the current qualifying round, he overtook the Dutchman Memphis Depay, who was the top scorer with 11 goals.

In the second half, Kane was replaced, and other Englishmen began to score the dwarf national team.

Emile Smith-Rowe and Tyrone Mings scored their debut goals for the national team, while Tammy Abraham and Baikayo Saka repeated what they had done before.

The last three were assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The match ended 10-0, marking the seventh time in history when England beat an opponent by double-digit goal difference.