LITHUANIA HOLD WORLD CHAMPS ITALY

Italy were held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Lithuania in their first competitive game since being crowned world champions in July.

AC Milan's Filippo Inzaghi nullified Vitalijus Kavaliauskas' shock 20th-minute opener in this Euro 2008 qualifier, but the Italians' embarrassment will last longer than the 10 minutes which separated those two strikes.

Their first chance to return to winning ways comes on Wednesday, when they travel to Paris to face France in a rematch of the World Cup final.

Les Bleus' Group B campaign began in much more predictable style, with a comfortable 3-0 win in Georgia in their first competitive match since the retirement of Zinedine Zidane.

Lyon's Florent Malouda opened the scoring after seven minutes before Louis Saha found the top corner from the edge of the box 10 minutes later to make it 2-0.

Malkhaz Asatiani hooked the ball into his own net 55 seconds after the interval and the rout was complete.

It could have been worse for Georgia, who topped Group B before kick-off courtesy of their 6-0 win at the Faroe Islands last month, but Patrick Vieira had an effort ruled out for offside on the stroke of half-time.

Spain bounced back from their latest underwhelming World Cup campaign by thrashing Liechtenstein 4-0 to kick off their Group F qualifying adventure with an easy three points.

First-half goals by strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa got the ball rolling for Spain, before Villa - with his second - and Luis Garcia garnished the scoreline as Luis Aragones' men returned to competitive action two months after their second-round defeat to France in Germany.

Sweden started their qualifying campaign with a vital three points from a 1-0 win against Latvia in Riga.

Kim Kallstrom was the hero for the visitors after he finished off a neat move seven minutes before half-time by drilling an unstoppable shot past keeper Aleksandrs Kolinko from 10 yards out.

The victory was sweet revenge for Sweden who were beaten at home by the Latvians in their quest to qualify for Euro 2004.

Holland stand alone at the top of Group G after scraping past Luxembourg 1-0 on Saturday.

The Dutch were the only side to pick up maximum points, with Romania and Bulgaria, and Belarus and Albania both playing out entertaining 2-2 draws.

Joris Mathijsen's solitary strike after 18 minutes was enough to give Holland a winning start.

Good play by Robin van Persie found Mathijsen inside the penalty area and the defender made no mistake, firing home from close range after his initial attempt was blocked.

Over in Constanta, Martin Petrov hit a dramatic late brace to earn Bulgaria a point from their opening game with Romania.

Laurentiu Rosu gave the home side a 40th-minute advantage, and when Ciprian Marica made it 2-0 10 minutes into the second half, the points looked to be secure.

The hosts looked in little danger of relinquishing their lead until Petrov's dramatic intervention in the final minutes.

Gabriel Sebastian Tamas was dismissed in injury time for a second bookable offence as the Romanians' frustrations got the better of them.

Meanwhile, Besnik Hasi's late equaliser rescued a point for Albania in their opening game against Belarus in Minsk.

Timofey Kalachev had handed the hosts an early lead but Ervin Skela responded instantly for the visitors from the penalty spot.

Maxim Romashchenko's 24th-minute strike looked like it would prove decisive before Hasi levelled with four minutes remaining.

Veteran forward Jari Litmanen rolled back the years by scoring a brace as Finland got their Group A campaign up and running with an impressive 3-1 victory at 10-man Poland.

The evergreen Litmanen, his country's leading goalscorer, netted twice (54 and 76) in the second half - one coming from the penalty spot - to guide the Finns to victory and even set up the third, scored by Mika Vayrynen (84).

Poland, who were knocked out of this summer's World Cup in the group stages, had their misery compounded when Arkadiusz Glowacki was sent off for the tackle which resulted in Litmanen's second.

It all made for a disappointing start to Leo Beenhakker's reign as Poland coach, although Lukasz Gargula (89) did grab a consolation late on.

Finland top the fledgling group on goal difference ahead of Serbia, who marked their first-ever competitive match with a well-deserved 1-0 victory over Azerbaijan in Belgrade.

Nikola Zigic was the match-winner for the hosts with a close-range header in the 72nd minute after great work by Dejan Stankovic.

Reigning European champions Greece made a winning start to their title defence with a 1-0 win in Moldova in Group C.

Otto Rehhagel's men, who failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in Germany, eventually claimed a deserved win thanks to a late strike from substitute Nikos Liberopoulos.

Norway opened their campaign in style as Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer struck twice in the comfortable 4-1 win in Hungary.

Solskjaer rounded off the victory just before the hour after Fredrik Stromstad and Morten Gamst Pedersen had added to the Manchester United front man's early strike.

Zoltan Gera grabbed a consolation goal for the home side in the last minute, converting from the penalty spot.

Bosnia-Herzegovina began in style, beating hosts Malta 5-2 in Ta' Qali.

Mirko Hrgovic and Zlatan Muslimovic grabbed two goals apiece for the visitors, for whom Sergej Barbarez opened the scoring very early on.

Malta battled hard, with Jamie Pace scoring arguably the goal of the game in the sixth minute while Michael Mifsud added a consolation late on.

Marek Mintal inspired Slovakia to a comfortable 6-1 victory over Cyprus in Group D.

The Nurnberg midfielder, who has just returned to fitness following a long-term foot injury, scored two goals and set up three others - for Martin Skrtel, Filip Sebo and Miroslav Karhan - as the hosts cruised in Bratislava.

Rangers new boy Sebo rounded off the scoring, with Yiasoumis Yiasoumi notching a late consolation for Cyprus in the last minute.

In the other match in England's Group E, Roberto Colautti scored the only goal of the game to give Israel a flying start and condemn Estonia to a second consecutive defeat.

Taken from sportinglife.com