World Cup: Denmark shock Portugal

Published: 11:09AM Thursday September 11, 2008 Source: Reuters

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Demark enjoy a surprise victory over Portugal, Spain march on against Armenia, Italy beat Georgia to go top, and France finally win a game in our World Cup qualifiers round up

Denmark take Portugal

Daniel Jensen's stoppage time winner gave Denmark a shock 3-2 victory over Portugal in a World Cup Group One qualifier on Thursday that featured four goals in the closing seven minutes.

Portugal winger Nani opened the scoring after 42 minutes when he tapped home Hugo Almeida's excellent cross from the left and the hosts dominated most of the match until the late flurry of goals.

Denmark levelled through Nicklas Bendtner's header in the 83rd before Portugal re-took the lead three minutes later with a Deco penalty. Denmark equalised again in the 89th minute through Christian Poulsen.

The Danes had not finished yet and grabbed all three points with Jensen's deflected shot two minutes into stoppage time.

Spain march on

Meanwhile, Spain continued their dominance with a fantastic 4-0 win over Armenia

Joan Capdevila fired the home side in front after only seven minutes, and soon after Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa doubled the lead as Spain threatened to cut loose.

Armenia, who lost their opening game 2-0 at home to Turkey on Saturday, held on until near the end when goals in quick succession from Villa again and Marcos Senna made sure of the points for the home side.

Victory followed Spain's 1-0 win over Bosnia on Saturday under new coach Vicente del Bosque, who replaced Luis Aragones after their triumph at the European championship in June.

"It wasn't an easy game, we had to work very hard," Capdevila told Spanish state television.

Italy beat Georgia to top

Daniele De Rossi scored twice as holders Italy beat Georgia 2-0 in their second World Cup qualifier on Wednesday to go top of Group Eight.

The midfielder opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a blistering left-footed strike and sealed victory in the 89th with a diagonal shot after being picked out by Alessandro Del Piero in the box.

World champions Italy have six points from two games after Saturday's 2-1 win in Cyprus, two more than Ireland, who drew 0-0 with Montenegro earlier on Thursday.

Azzurri coach Marcello Lippi was looking for a reaction from his side, who were outplayed by Cyprus for long spells in their opener and were lucky to return from Larnaca with a win.

France win a game, finally

France turned round a poor start to their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign by beating Serbia 2-1 courtesy of second-half goals by captain Thierry Henry and fellow striker Nicolas Anelka.

France had slumped to an embarrassing 3-1 defeat by Austria in their opening Group Seven game on Saturday in Vienna and French media had speculated coach Raymond Domenech would lose his job if the World Cup runners-up did not win this time.

Striker Henry showed them the way on a mild evening at the Stade de France, collecting a through ball by Sidney Govou to hit the back of the net with an angled shot from inside the area on 54 minutes.

Substitute Anelka doubled the advantage with a fine goal 10 minutes later, twisting his way past two defenders to strike from the edge of the box.

Serbia, who started with a lacklustre 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands, reduced the arrears with a header from a corner by Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic 14 minutes from time.

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