Wales' hopes of qualifying for their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup took a serious dent in Belgrade last night when Mark Hughes's team lost 1-0 to Serbia and Montenegro, Dragan Mladenovic with the winner on his debut for the hosts with 17 minutes remaining. However, the Welsh still lead Group Nine by two points from Italy, who they face in Milan on 6 September, having now played the same number of games as the Azzurri.

The Italians themselves secured an impressive 1-0 friendly win in Stuttgart last night thanks to a combination of Christian Vieri's 17th-minute strike and a fine second-half goalkeeping display from Gianluigi Buffon keeping out the Germans.

Scotland were in action too last night and came away from Norway with a hard-fought goalless draw, Liverpool left-back John Arne Riise coming the closest to breaking the deadlock after the interval, but his volley struck a post. Meanwhile on Tuesday night, the Republic of Ireland came from behind in Dublin to overcome the challenge of Australia 2-1. Want-away Leeds United striker Mark Viduka had given Australia an early lead, but Brian Kerr's team won the match through late strikes from Manchester United defender John O'Shea and Birmingham City striker Clinton Morrison, a victory that preserves the new manager's unbeaten record. But, there was some bad news for Tottenham Hotspur supporters, with Robbie Keane being stretchered off with suspected ankle ligament damage.

All three of England's upcoming Group Seven opponents were in action last night, with F.Y.R Macedonia and Turkey both recording victories. Leaders Turkey had few problems in beating Moldova 2-0 in Ankara courtesy of goals from Nihat Kahveci and Okan Yilmaz, while Macedonia, who entertain England on 6th September, overcame Albania 3-1 at home. The hosts made a winning start under new coach Dragan Kanatlarovski thanks to strikes from Ilco Naumoski, Goran Pandev and substitute Draganco Dimitrovski. However, Liechtenstein could only manage a 2-2 draw at home with San Marino, and this despite taking a two-goal lead early on.

Sunderland's Mart Poom and Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek were in opposite goalmouth's on Wednesday evening as Poland won 2-1 in Estonia, while in Copenhagen Aki Riihilahti's 88th-minute free kick salvaged a 1-1 draw for Finland after Chelsea winger Jesper Gronjkær had opened the scoring for the Danes. And Everton midfielder Thomas Gravesen and Charlton Athletic striker Jonatan Johansson both went close to finding the back of the met in a thrilling finish.

In Brussels, Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy's remarkable scoring run for club and country that stretched back to the end of last season came to an end in his side's 1-1 draw. New Ajax signing Wesley Sonck had given Belgium a first-half lead when he shot past Fulham's Edwin van der Saar, only for the in-form Roy Makaay to level matters just after the break, while late on both teams were reduced to ten men following the dismissals of Phillip Cocu and Olivier De Kock.

But Chelsea fans will be delighted with the performance of their probable front-two for this Saturday's game against Leicester City, Adrian Mutu and Eidur Gudjohnsen. The former scored both goals in Romania's 2-0 win in the Ukraine, with the opener arriving from the spot, while the latter opened the scoring as Iceland won 2-1 in the Faroe Islands. And Russia were without their captain, Alexei Smertin, last night as they went down to a shock 2-1 defeat in Moscow to Israel because the Bordeaux midfielder was in London talking over a four-year contract with Chelsea.

And finally the current champions of Europe, France, who are all but certain of a place in Portugal next summer, strolled to a 2-0 victory in Geneva over Switzerland, and it was more Premiership-based players who caught the eye. United's Mickaël Silvestre and Fabien Barthez were the only Frenchmen to complete the whole match, while Arsenal's Sylvain Wiltord scored the first after 12 minutes from Zinedine Zidane's through-ball, before setting up Fulham's Steve Marlet for his second goal in the space of four days shortly after half-time.

Other results:

Slovenia 2-1 Hungary
Latvia 0-3 Uzbekistan
Bulgaria 3-0 Lithuania

Player of the night: Gianluigi Buffon.

The Juventus and Italy No 1, who is also the world's most expensive goalkeeper, had an outstanding night to thwart a strong second-half German showing in Stuttgart last night, including two sensational saves from free kicks that helped to win his team the game 1-0.

by Richard Morgan

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