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Blaise Bourgeois·11 November 2021
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Blaise Bourgeois·11 November 2021
Happy 11/11! We’re back with more World Cup qualifiers as Georgia provided the headline of the night by ruining Zlatan Ibrahimović’s thunder and providing Sweden with a major hiccup.
Here’s what went down …
Scorers: Kvaratskhelia 61′, 77′
Sweden’s automatic World Cup qualifying hopes took a massive blow on Thursday as they were upset by Georgia in Zlatan’s return to Sweden duty.
Exciting Rubin Kazan 20-year-old Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who also scored against Spain and Greece, stole the show once again with a sensational brace in front of his home crowd.
Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Loria put on a stunning display of his own, making eight saves en route to a historic win.
The win was just Georgia’s 11th-ever World Cup qualifying victory and marks their first two-game winning streak in qualifying since 2001.
Sweden will now have to defeat Spain in Seville in order to punch their ticket to Qatar.
Scorers: Sarabia 25′ (pen)
It now all comes down to Sunday as Spain defeated Greece 1-0 on the road to set up a massive showdown with Sweden.
With the result, Greece has been eliminated from World Cup qualifying after a rollercoaster ride that included results against the two leaders but ill-timed draws against Georgia and Kosovo.
After VAR concluded that a handball occurred in the box, Pablo Sarabia put Spain ahead from the spot in the 25th minute.
Spain played their typical style of football and dominated with 73% of the possession, allowing Greece to only attempt a single shot on target.
Spain now lead Group B and only need to salvage a draw on Sunday in order to qualify for Qatar.
Scorers: Gündoğan 11′ (pen), Kaufmann 20′ (OG), Sané 22′, 49′ Reus 23′, Müller 76′, 86′, Baku 80′, Göppel 89′ (OG)
With Germany already having secured their World Cup berth, the home side still put out a very strong side to take care of business, delivering a 9-0 win against minnows Liechtenstein.
If the task wasn’t already difficult enough for Liechtenstein, they were forced to play with 10 men for over 80 minutes after centre-back Jens Hofer was sent off for a high boot to the face of Leon Goretzka.
Ilkay Gündoğan would convert the ensuing penalty to put Germany in full control. It wouldn’t be much longer until Germany went four goals to the good after bagging three goals in a three-minute span.
After the half-time intermission, Leroy Sané would complete his brace with a rather unspectacular scuffed effort that went between Thomas Müller’s legs and into the net.
MĂĽller would later poke home a corner from a yard out before Ridle Baku scored his maiden international goal in just his third match for Germany.
Müller’s second and a Maximilian Göppel own goal would complete the scoring as Germany outshot their opponents 42-4 (23-0 SOG) on the night.
Germany will complete their World Cup qualifying run on Sunday in Armenia.
Scorers: N/A
Portugal were able to get the result they needed on Thursday, drawing Ireland 0-0 to set up an all-important showdown at the Estádio da Luz.
Just like in Group B, Group A’s automatic qualifier against Serbia will be a winner-take-all affair, with Portugal going through should the two teams play to a stalemate.
There were some tense moments late on after Pepe was shown just his second-ever red card in his international career but Portugal was able to hold on.