By IANS,
London : England drew with Montenegro 2-2 to qualify for the Euro 2012 Football finals while Portugal have a good chance of making to the main phase after their 5-3 win over Iceland in the qualifiers.
Ashley Young and Darren Bent gave England a 2-0 lead but Montenegro showed character to level the match in Podgorica. The hosts scored Elsad Zverotic at the stroke of half time and equalised with a last-minute strike from Andrija Delibasic. England’s star player was shown the red card in the 74th minute.
Portugal are knocking at the doors of qualification and will advance unless they lose to Denmark with more than four-goal deficit next Wednesday.
Their game home against Iceland was expected to be an easy affair but the visitors put up a fight.
Iceland started the game more aggressively and got four corners in the first eight minutes.
Against the flow of the game, Portugal scored. In the 12th minute, Eliseu crossed and Nani scored with a header. In the 20th minute, Nani intercepted a missed pass from Solvi Jonsson to the goalkeeper and scored again.
The first half ended with the Portuguese third goal in the 43rd minute when Helder Postiga received a pass in the box and sent the ball in.
It seemed that there was no possibility for a turn around. But in the 47th minute, Jonsson received inside the box and crossed with a header to Hallgrimu Jonasson, who scored. In the 67th minute, on a corner, the Portuguese defence did not manage to take the ball out of the box and Jonasson netted another goal.
Only after suffering the second goal, the Portuguese team put more speed in its game. In the 80th minute, in a fast move of the Portuguese left wing, midfielder Joao Moutinho scored the fourth goal. Eliseu scored the fifth goal in the 86th minute.
Iceland team managed to score again in injury time. Rolando tackled Bjarnasson in the box, resulting in a penalty converted by Sigurdsson.
Complete results:
Group A
At Baku
Azerbaijan 1 (Nadirov 74), Austria 4 (Ivanschitz 34, Janko 52, 62, Junuzovic 90+1)
At Istanbul
Turkey 1 (Balta 79), Germany 3 (Gomez 35, Mueller 66, Schweinsteiger 86-pen)
At Brussels
Belgium 4 (Simons 40-pen, Hazard 43, Kompany 49, Ogunjimi 84), Kazakhstan 1 (Nurdauletov 86-pen)
Group B
At Yerevan
Armenia 4 (Pizzelli 28, Mkhitaryan 34, Kazaryan 69, Sarkisov 90+1), Macedonia 1 (Sikov 86)
At Zilina, Slovakia
Slovakia 0, Russia 1 (Dzagoev 70)
At Andorra la Vella
Andorra 0, Republic of Ireland 2 (Doyle 8, McGeady 20)
Group C
At Belgrade
Serbia 1 (Ivanovic 26), Italy 1 (Marchisio 2)
At Belfast
Northern Ireland 1 (Davis 22), Estonia 2 (Vassiljev 77-pen, 84)
Group D
At Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bosnia-Herzegovina 5 (Dzeko 12, Misimovic 15, 23-pen, Pjanic 37, Medunjanin 51), Luxembourg 0
At Bucharest
Romania 2 (Mutu 19, 51-pen), Belarus 2 (Kornilenko 45, Dragun 82)
At Paris
France 3 (Malouda 11, L. Rimy 38, Reveillere 67), Albania 0
Group E
At Helsinki
Finland 1 (Toivio 73), Sweden 2 (S. Larsson 8, Olsson 52)
At Rotterdam, Netherlands
Netherlands 1 (Huntelaar 39), Moldova 0
Group F
At Riga
Latvia 2 (Visnakovs 33, Rudnevs 83), Malta 0
At Piraeus, Greece
Greece 2 (Samaras 71, Gekas 79), Croatia 0
Group G
At Swansea
Wales 2 (Ramsey 60-pen, Bale 71), Switzerland 0
At Podgorica, Montenegro
Montenegro 2 (Zverotic 45, Delibasic 90+1), England 2 (A. Young 11, D. Bent 31)
Group H
At Nicosia Cyprus 1 (Avraam 45+1), Denmark 4 (Jacobsen 7, Rommedahl 11, 22, Krohn-Dehli 20)
At Porto, Portugal
Portugal 5 (Nani 13, 21 Helder Postiga 45, Joao Moutinho 81, Eliseu 87), Iceland 3 (Jonasson 48, 68, Sigurdsson 90+4-pen)
Group I
At Prague
Czech Republic 0, Spain 2 (Mata 6, Xabi Alonso 22)