England, Italy win World Cup qualifiers
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-09 09:53

England lifted the pressure off coach Sven-Goran Eriksson with a 2-1 win at Poland in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday night, while Italy won its second straight game and France got its first victory.

Jermain Defoe scored in the 36th minute at Katowice, but Maciej Zurawski tied it in the 48th. Michael Owen pressured Arkadiusz Glowacki into an own goal in the 58th minute. England was coming off a 2-2 tie at Austria in which it wasted a two-goal lead.

Eriksson dropped goalkeeper David James, whose misplay allowed Austria's tying goal, and replaced him with Paul Robinson.

Italy won 1-0 at Moldova on Alessandro Del Piero's goal in the 31st minute. France, coming off a 0-0 tie at home against Israel, won 2-0 at the Faeroe Islands on goals by Ludovic Giuly and Djibril Cisse. France played a man short after Patrick Vieira was ejected in the 55th minute for getting his second yellow card.

The Netherlands, which failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, won 2-0 against the Czech Republic in Amsterdam on two goals by Pierre van Hooijdonk.

Spain was held to a 1-1 tie at Bosnia-Herzegovina, with Vicente Rodriguez scoring for the visitors in the 66th minute and Evir Bolic tying it seven minutes later. European champion Greece, which lost 2-1 to Albania on Saturday, played a 0-0 tie at home against Turkey.

Germany, which gets au automatic berth as the host of the 2006 tournament, played a 1-1 tie in Berlin against defending champion Brazil. Ronaldinho scored for the visitors on a free kick in the ninth minute, but Brazilian-born Kevin Kuranyi tied it for Germany eight minutes later.

In the North and Central American and Caribbean region, Mexico won its semifinal opener 3-1 at Trinidad and Tobago (2-1) as Jose De Jesus Arellano scored in the first and 80th minutes and Jared Borgetti scored in the 21st. Stern John got the home team's goal in the 40th.

The United States (1-0-1) played at Panama later Wednesday night.

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