France, England impress in qualifiers
BARCELONA: France and England have moved top of their Euro 2020 qualifying groups as they strolled to easy wins.
World champion France earned a comfortable 41 win over Albania with Kingsley Coman striking twice yesterday, while Harry Kane netted a hattrick as England thrashed Bulgaria 40.
Iceland and Turkey are level on 12 points with France at the top of group H after they beat Moldova 30 and Andorra 10, respectively.
Kosovo is second in group A behind England after a 21 win over the Czech Republic, extending its unbeaten run to 15 games.
Ukraine beat Lithuania 30 to march clear at the top of Group B, while Portugal won 42 in Serbia to go second.
France’s game in SaintDenis started inauspiciously as the Andorra national anthem was played instead of the Albanian, with the visitors not willing to kick off until the situation was remedied.
However before the correct anthem was played the stadium announcer mistakenly issued the apology ‘‘to Armenia’’.
France was far slicker on the pitch and Bayern Munich’s Coman was on target twice in an impressive display.
Didier Deschamps’s side took the lead after eight minutes when Coman finished calmly after a fine through pass from Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane.
Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud doubled France’s lead with a cool finish in the 27th minute.
Coman netted his second after the break after a slick team move to give France’s lead some deserved padding, with substitute Jonathan Ikone netting a fine fourth.
Hugo Lloris conceded a late penalty for France and could not keep out Sokol Cikalleshi’s consolation.
Gareth Southgate’s England moved top of group A ahead of Kosovo as Kane bagged a treble against a weak Bulgaria.
Kane had an early goal disallowed for offside but was soon on the scoresheet when Bulgaria goalkeeper Plamen Iliev gifted Raheem Sterling the ball and he teed up the England skipper.
It was the only strike of a dull first half at Wembley but Kane doubled his tally from the penalty spot early in the second period when Nikolay Bodurov brought down Marcus Rashford.
Kane set up Sterling for the third after 55 minutes as England ripped apart its opponent.
The Tottenham Hotspur striker added his third from the penalty spot as England saw out the game in style.
‘‘In a game like this you have got to make sure the concentration is right. I always felt we had enough firepower to win the game,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘I’m generally pleased. Some of our attacking play was really exciting.’’
Meanwhile, Portugal edged a 42 thriller in Serbia to usurp its opponent and move into second place in group B.
William Carvalho and Goncalo Guedes put the visitors two goals up, with Cristiano Ronaldo adding a third after Nikola Milenkovic pulled one back.
Aleksandar Mitrovic struck to close the gap again but Bernardo Silva slotted home to seal Portugal’s victory.