Group F: Israel and Portugal win

Israel continues its excellent campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil with a 2-0 away win over Ireland, after a home draw 3-3 with Portugal, winner today over Azerbaijan away by 2-0. Russia's game with Northern Ireland was postponed due to bad weather conditions but on Monday Capello's team got a 1-1 draw with Brazil in London.

After Israel's 2-0 win in Belfast today and Portugal's 2-0 win in Azerbaijan, Group F reads as follows:

1 Russia 4 games 12 points (4 victories, 0 draws, 0 defeats, 8 goals scored, 0 against)

2 Israel 6 games and 11 points (3-2-1-15-8); 3 Portugal 6 games and 11 points (3-2-1-11-6); 4 Northern Ireland 5 games, 3 points; 5 Azerbaijan 6 games, 3 points; 6 Luxemburg 5 games, 2 points.

Russia's last two games were on October 12 2012 (1-0 against Portugal) and October 16 (1-0 against Azerbaijan). The next games will be in June (7^th) in Portugal and September 6^th against Luxemburg in Russia.

Group A: Belgium and Croatia reinforced their leadership with wins over Macedonia (home 1-0) and Wales (2-1 away). 6 games, 16 points apiece.

Group B: Leaders Italy and Bulgaria chalked up points, Italy winning 2-0 in Malta and Bulgaria coming back from Denmark with a 1-1 draw. Italy has 13 points from 5 games, Bulgaria 10 from 6 games.

Group C: Germany 4 Kazakhstan 1 sees Germany confirm leadership with 16 points from 6 games; Austria and Sweden have 8 points from 5 and 4 games respectively.

Group D: Netherlands 4 Romania 0; Turkey 1 Hungary 1 defined the top of the table, now with Netherlands leading with 18 points from 6 games, Hungary second (11 from 6) and Romania third (10 from 6).

Group E: Switzerland 11 points, Albania and Iceland 9 points, all from 5 games.

Group G: 5 games - Bosnia and Herzegovina 13 points; Greece 10 points.

Group H: Montenegro and England drew 1-1 in Podgorica. 6 games each, Montenegro has 14 points, England has 12.

Group I: France 0 Spain 1. 5 games, Spain leads with 11 points, France on 10.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru