By DPA
Hamburg : Scotland stunned France 1-0 in Paris to go to the top of their Euro 2008 football qualifying Group B.
James McFadden scored the only goal of Wednesday night’s game in the 64th minute after the Scottish defence had managed to withhold sustained French pressure throughout the opening hour.
Scottish coach Ally McLeish admitted that his side had not had it all their own way.
“It was a wee bit ugly, but we got the job done. We did not have too many breaks, but now I believe that we can qualify,” said McLeish after the surprise victory.
“The goal was inspirational and it gave us the points. Now we have to follow that up in our next games.”
The Scots are on 21 points, one ahead of Italy, who had two Antonio di Natale goals to thank for a somewhat lucky 2-1 victory in Ukraine.
France is third on 19 points, facing the danger of missing out on a place at the finals.
The third group game saw Lithuania beat the Faroe Islands 2-1.
In Wednesday’s other matches table-toppers Greece, Croatia and Poland continued marching towards the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland next June with results that kept them at the top of their respective groups.
In Group E Croatia extended their lead at the top to three points from England and five from Russia, with a convincing 6-0 victory at Andorra.
One goal by Dario Srna and two by Mladen Petric gave the visitors a three-goal lead at halftime before Niko Kranjcar, Eduardo and Ivan Rakitic doubled their score in the second half.
At London’s Wembley Stadium, Michael Owen struck twice and Rio Ferdinand added a third late in the game as England took a huge step towards qualification with a 3-0 win over Russia.
Macedonia and Estonia drew 1-1 in the other group game.
In Group A, Finland and Poland played to a goalless draw that keeps Poland at the top with 21 points, while Finland have 19.
Portugal failed to fully capitalise on the result from the Poland game as they allowed Branislav Ivanovic to equalise Simao’s early goal for the hosts in the 86th minute.
The result leaves the Portuguese third on 17 points with a game in hand behind Poland and Finland.
The other game in the group between Kazakhstan and Belgium ended 2-2.
Defending champions Greece twice took the lead in the first half through Sotirios Kyrgiakos, but John Carew and John Arne Riise equalised both times for Norway.
Greece head Group C with 19 points for eight matches, while Norway have 17 from nine. Turkey, who beat a ten-man Hungary, is in second place on 17 points.
Also in Group C Bosnia-Herzegovina was upset 1-0 at home by Moldova, who went into the game without having won a match previously.
In Group D Wales, who lost 5-1 at home to Slovakia earlier in the campaign, managed to gain some sort of revenge with a 5-2 victory in Slovakia, while Cyprus beat San Marino 3-0.
The Czechs scored an important 1-0 victory against Ireland to close the gap on Germany in Group D to two points, but more importantly, they now have a six-point lead over the Irish.
Group G seems to be coming down to a three-horse race among Romania, the Netherlands and Bulgaria.
The Romanians, who did not play Wednesday, have 20 points – like the Dutch, who won 1-0 in Albania through Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 90th minute strike against an opponent playing with 10 men.
Bulgaria had fewer problems to beat Luxembourg 3-0, while Slovenia won 1-0 against Belarus.
Northern Ireland’s hopes of qualifying received a major setback in Iceland as they conceded a last-gasp goal to lose 2-1, while Denmark beat Liechtenstein 4-0.
Spain joined Sweden at the top of the group on 19 points with a 2-0 victory against Latvia, the goals coming from Xavi Hernandez and Fernando Torres.
Luis Aragones’ team remain unbeaten in 2007. Moreover, they have picked up 16 points from their last six qualifying matches, conceding just two goals in the process.