Hamburg - A last-minute goal from Antonio de Natale gave world champions Italy a 2-1 win at Cyprus, but defeated 2006 finalists France crashed 3-1 in Austria Saturday in World Cup qualifiers in Europe. England struggled to overcome minnows Andorra 2-0, but losing Euro 2008 finalists Germany had little trouble in a 6-0 victory at lowly Liechentstein.
Group 7 provided two upsets with Austria defeating France and Romania crashing to a 3-0 home defeat to Lithuania.
Austria took an eighth-minute lead against the French through Marc Janko and made it two when Philippe Mexes put the ball into his own net three minutes before the break.
Although Sidney Govou pulled one back for France in the 62nd minute, Austria made sure of the points when Andreas Ivanchitz scored a third in the 76th.
Lithuania are the surprise leaders of the group after upsetting Romania, while Serbia began their campaign in the group with a 2-0 win over Faroe Islands.
A dithering Italy snatched a late 2-1 win through an Antonio Di Natale brace away to a gritty Cyprus side in Group 8.
The striker confirmed his good form putting Italy one up on eight minutes and secured Italy's win in injury time after a 29th-minute equalizer from Efstathios Aloneftis.
In the same group, Montenegro and Bulgaria shared four goals, while Ireland got their qualifying campaign off to a winning start in Giovanni Trapattoni's first competitive match in charge when they overcame Georgia 2-1.
Kevin Doyle in the 13th minute and Glenn Whelan 20 minutes from time put Ireland in charge before a last-minute consolation from Levan Kebia in a match played in Mainz, Germany because of the conflict in Georgia.
Two goals from substitute Joe Cole spared England's blushes in Group 6 as they overcame international minnows Andorra 2-0 in Barcelona.
It was an unconvincing display by England in manager Fabio Capello's first competitive match in charge, and they were booed off by their supporters as they went into the break 0-0.
Croatia, who meet England in Zagreb, on Wednesday, began with a 3-0 defeat of Kazakhstan thanks to first-half goals from Robert Kovac and Luka Modric and a late strike from Mladen Petric.
In the same group, Ukraine edged Belarus thanks to a last-minute penalty from Andriy Shevchenko.
Three-time world champions Germany breezed to a 6-0 victory over Liechenstein in Group 4, with Lukas Podolski bagging a brace, while Wales left it late to beat Azerbaijan 1-0 in the same group thanks to a goal from 18-year-old striker Sam Vokes.
Scotland went down 1-0 to Macedonia in a Group 9 encounter in Skopje in manager George Burley's first competitive match in charge, with Ilcho Naumoski hitting the winner in the fifth minute.
Turkey were 2-0 winners in Armenia in a Group 5 game, Tuncay in the 61st minute and Semih Senturk in the 78th scoring, while Belgium edged Estonia 3-2 in the group.
Slovakia top Group 3 after a 2-1 defeat of Northern Ireland, courtesy of goals from Martin Skrtel a minute into the second half and Marek Hamsik in the 70th before the visitors pulled one back from an own goal by Jan Durica.
Poland were held 1-1 in Warsaw by Slovenia in the same group. Michael Zewlakow put coach Leo Beenhakker's side ahead in the 17th minute but Slovenia levelled 10 minutes before the break through Zlatko Dedic.
Ottmar Hitzfeld's first competitive game in charge of Switzerland ended in a 2-2 draw in Israel in Group 2. Greece were 3-0 winners in Luxembourg and Latvia came away from Moldova with a 2-1 win.
Portugal were 4-0 winners in Group 1 where the matches between Hungary and Denmark, and Albania and Sweden finished goalless.
