Hamburg - Greece, Sweden, Bosnia and Russia scored impressive victories Wednesday to stay on course to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. In Group 1, Sweden beat Hungary 2-1 with goals from Kim Kallstrom and Samuel Holmen but allowed a goal from Gergely Rudolf in the last seconds of extra time.
Sweden, playing a 3-5-2 system, looked weak in the first half and were booed off the field as they left the field at the end of the first half.
They were better in the second half as they picked up their game, prompting assistant coach Roland Andersson to say that the team "played simpler and easier," moving the ball faster, which proved decisive.
The other group game saw Albania beat Malta 3-0 to move to the top of the standings on four points, though they could be overtaken by Portugal, who are at home later Wednesday to Denmark.
Luxembourg scored a stunning upset in Group 2 as they beat Switzerland 2-1 in Zurich, while Greece stayed on track to make it to South Africa with a 2-0 win in Latvia. They top the group from Israel, who won 2-1 in Moldova, with six points. The Israelis have four points.
Poland and Slovenia head Group 3 after beating San Marino 2-0 and Slovakia 2-1 respectively. The favourites in the group, the Czech Republic, managed no better than a goalless draw in Belfast against Northern Ireland.
In Moscow, a late goal from Pavel Pogrebnyak gave Russia a hard- fought 2-1 victory over Wales in a Group 4 game.
Russia were in control for most of the first half, but the only reward was a 22nd-minute penalty converted by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Wales battled their way back with a 67th-minute equalizer from Joe Ledley, superbly set up by Gareth Bale, who cut past two defenders before sending the ball low across goal.
Bale had missed a chance to put Wales ahead when he saw his 17th- minute penalty well saved by Igor Akinfeev in goal.
Soon after, Russia were awarded a penalty of their own when Carl Robinson brought down Konstantin Zyrianov, and Pavlyuchenko made no mistake from the spot.
Russia coach Guus Hiddink had left Pogrebnyak on the substitutes' bench, but the Zenit St Petersburg striker came on in the 74th minute to settle the game seven minutes later.
Andre Arshavin cut inside from the left before crossing. Keeper Wayne Hennessey did well to save Zyrianov's header, but the ball ran free to Pogrebnyak, whose left-foot shot found the back of the net.
In another group, game Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein scored their first points of the qualifiers after a goalless draw in Baku, while Germany have Miroslav Klose to thank for a 3-3 draw in Finland, during which the Bayern striker thrice equalized for the three-time world champions.
Another Bundesliga-based player, Zvjedzdan Misimovic, managed three goals as Bosnia scored the biggest victory of the night, beating Estonia 7-0 in Group 5. Turkey were held to a 1-1 draw by Belgium in another group game.
In a Group 6 game in Andorra, Barcelona's Aliaksandr Hleb was one of the goal scorers for Belarus, who beat Andorra 3-1. Dmitri Verkhovtsov and Vitali Rodionov scored the other goals for the visitors, while Marc Pujol managed to momentarily equalize for Andorra.
The other group game Serhiy Nazarenko gave the Ukrainians the lead in the 45th minute in Almatay against Kazakhstan. The attacking midfielder from Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk scored his second 10 minutes from the end to give his side a convincing 3-1 victory after Andriy Shevchenko gave the visitors a two-goal cushion in the 54th minute.
Sergey Ostapenko had given the home crowd a glimmer of hope in the 68th minute when he reduced the score to 2-1, but Nazarenko's second killed off any hopes they had of snatching an unlikely draw.
England scored an impressive 4-1 victory in Croatia on the night, inflicting a first-ever competitive home defeat on the Croatians, with 19-year-old Theo Walcott scoring a hat-trick for his side.
In other matches, Lithuania beat Austria 2-0 in Group 7 to move to the top of the standings, while France won 2-1 against Serbia, and a 10-man Romania beat the Faroe Islands 1-0 in the other group matches.
In Group 8, Italy beat Georgia 2-0, while Montenegro and Ireland played to a goalless draw.
Both matches in Group 9 ended in 2-1 victories for the away sides, with Scotland winning in Iceland while the Netherlands beat Macedonia.
