England, France suffer first-night nerves
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-06 05:53

Former winners England and France were held to frustrating draws as they got their 2006 World Cup campaigns off to unconvincing starts on Saturday as European champions Greece came crashing back to earth suffering an embarrassing defeat in Albania.

England threw away a 2-0 lead in Vienna against Austria in their Group Six opener to draw 2-2 with blunder-struck goalkeeper David James again at fault when he let the home side's equaliser squirm under his body.

France, without the retired Zinedine Zidane, were held to a 0-0 draw in Group Four by Israel in Paris while Greece, shock Euro 2004 winners two months ago, were humbled 2-1 by little Albania in Tirana in Group Two.

England coach Sven Goran Eriksson refused to condemn James after the keeper's error had cost his side two points, making Wednesday's trip to Poland even more fraught.

Asked if James would be first-choice goalkeeper for Wednesday, the Swede replied: "Ask me on Tuesday, maybe.

"But he has saved us so many times before - so it's not a problem."

Frank Lampard's first-half goal and a Steven Gerrard strike mid-way through the second half had put Eriksson's side firmly in control of a match they should have killed off before the interval.

As it was, they were forced to settle for a point after Austria struck twice in quick succession.

Substitute Roland Kollmann blasted in a free-kick from 25 yards and two minutes later captain Andreas Ivanschitz unleashed a speculative shot from the edge of the area that slithered under the England's keeper's body.

New-look France lacked ideas as they were held to a 0-0 draw by jinx team Israel in their first World Cup qualifier for more than 10 years at the Stade de France.

France's last qualifier was in 1993, when they lost to Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes and were denied a place in the USA finals the following year.

Ironically in their previous qualifier, it had been Israel who had beaten them when a point would have earned France their ticket to the USA.

From the ashes of those setbacks came a generation of players which won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European championship, but new coach Raymond Domenech, in only his second match in charge, is involved in rebuilding the French side once again.

Domenech promised better things from his side as time goes on.

"The more matches we play, the more we'll get stuck in," he said.

Arsenal's Patrick Vieira was playing his first game as captain in a match where Domenech was having to do without the retired Marcel Desailly, Zidane, Bixente Lizarazu and Lilian Thuram.

Italy, too, were heading for a stalemate until a late goal by substitute Luca Toni lifted them to a 2-1 win over Norway to hand Marcello Lippi his first win since taking over as coach in their Group Five qualifier in Palermo.

John Carew had given Norway the lead in the opening minute before Daniele De Rossi levelled two minutes later.

Lippi made a spate of late substitutions - replacing Alberto Gilardino with Bernardo Corradi, Giuseppe Favalli with Aimo Diana, and Fabrizio Miccoli with Luca.

The last switch proved pivotal when the Palermo attacker scored with 11 minutes left.

In Tirana, Edvin Murati and Adrian Aliaj gave Albania a 2-0 lead over Greece before Stelios Giannakopoulos pulled one back seven minutes before the break.

The Republic of Ireland, despite missing the influential Roy Keane, kicked off their campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Cyprus in Dublin in Group Four.

First-half goals from Clinton Morrison and man-of-the-match Andy Reid set the Irish on their way, before Robbie Keane equalled Niall Quinn's international scoring record by converting a 56th minute penalty for his 21st goal for his country.

"Given all the problems we've had with injuries, it was very satisfactory," said Ireland coach Brian Kerr.

It was a crucial win for Ireland, who are in a tough group that also features 1998 champions France as well as Switzerland, who crushed the Faroe Islands 6-0.

Northern Ireland, who are in Group Six with England and Wales, saw their mini-revival under Lawrie Sanchez come to a juddering halt as Poland outclassed them to run out 3-0 winners at Windsor Park.

The Poles scored twice in the first half thanks to shameful defensive errors as Maciej Jurawski and Piotr Wlodarczyk - later to be sent off - hit the back of the net. The rout was completed when Jacek Krzynowek scored in the second half.

"We gave them two bad goals," said Northern Ireland defender Aaron Hughes.

Wales had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Azerbaijan in Baku.

Welsh skipper Gary Speed, making his 82nd international appearance, had given Mark Hughes's team the lead early in the second half only for Kashad Sadykhov to fire in a free-kick from 40 yards to pull his team level.

Sweden were the night's top scorers crushing Malta 7-0 in Valetta with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring a hat-trick in ten minutes in the first half before adding a fourth after the interval.

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