SWITZERLAND suffered an acutely embarrassing 2-1 home defeat against tiny Luxembourg in their World Cup Group 2 qualifier last night.
The home side, under new coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, dominated for long periods of the match but fell unexpectedly behind in the first half when visiting captain Jeff Strasser curled a free kick in off the glove of goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.
A figh
tback seemed to be on the cards when striker Blaise Nkfuo headed in a Hakan Yakin cross to put Switzerland back on level terms shortly before the break. But as the Euro 2008 co-hosts desperately went in search of a second goal, Luxembourg's Alphonse Leweck fired in a winner with four minutes to go.
Germany failed to take a firm hold of Group 4, where they will meet Wales later in qualifying, after being held to a thrilling 3-3 draw by Finland in Helsinki.
Miroslav Klose scored a hat-trick in the 83rd minute for Joachim Low's side after Finland took the lead on three separate occasions through former Charlton, Rangers and Norwich striker Jonatan Johansson, Mika Vayrynen and Daniel Sjolund.
The Germans now have four points, with their hosts on one after their first match. In the group's other fixture, Liechtenstein held Berti Vogts' Azerbaijan to a goalless draw.
England's Group 6 rivals Ukraine can boast an early 100 per cent record in their campaign after a 3-1 win away to Kazakhstan. Their result will not overly concern Fabio Capello or his Croatia counterpart Slaven Bilic, coming as it does off the back of a 1-0 home win over Kazakhstan's fellow minnows Belarus, but it places the Ukraine well ahead of sterner tests. Former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko once again proved his hunger for international goals, scoring his side's second either side of two Serhiy Nazarenko efforts.
Sergey Ostapenko scored the hosts' consolation with 20 minutes of the match remaining. Belarus registered their first points of the campaign with a 3-1 away victory over Andorra.
Dmitry Verkhovtsov opened the scoring and although Marc Pujol equalised, Vitali Rodionov and Vyacheslav Hleb sealed the win.
The full article contains 360 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
