FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifiers: Kane drives England to Qatar as Italy suffered a shock draw and will have to play in the playoffs

(Football news) England secured a safe passage to Qatar 2022 as they routed San Marino 10-0, this was the first time that England hit double figures in a competitive game. England's captain Harry Kane scored all four goals in the first half including two penalties, to move his international goal tally to 48 which is tied with Gary Lineker and only five goals away from Wayne Rooney to become the country’s all time leading goal scorer. Kane finished 2021 with 16 goals for England which is also a national record for a calendar year. Goals from Harry Maguire, Emile Smith Rowe, Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham, Bukayo Saka and an own goal from Filippo Fabbri sealed a historic win for the three Lions. With this result England finished on top of Group I with 26 points, six points clear of second place Poland on 20 points.

"Fantastic. It came to the last game and we were expected to win tonight but we've done a good job. Fantastic to go through," the 28-year-old Kane said

England coach Gareth Southgate said, “If we left him for another half an hour, we would have had Wayne Rooney's family on the phone. He is a phenomenal goal scorer. We wanted to give him the chance tonight and he took it well. We cannot do anything about the level of opposition, but the mentality and the way they applied themselves was terrific.”

Northern Ireland produced a spirited performance against the European Champions Italy to deny them an automatic qualification spot as they drew 0-0. Now subsequently Italy will have to qualify for Qatar 2022 the hard way as they are into the playoffs, Italy knew that they had to win after Switzerland beat Bulgaria 4-0 as the Jorginho penalty miss will hurt even more. The Azzurri's were not at their usual best, they were missing captain Giorgio Chiellini, first choice striker Ciro Immobile and key midfielder Marco Verratti but Italy still had a lot of match winners on the field. The Italians hardly created any clear cut opportunities as they kept bumping against a green and white wall. With this disappointing draw Switzerland topped the group C with 18 points as Italy finished second with 16 points.

Italy coach Roberto Mancini after the match said, “We can't do anything about it now, we have this game in March and will try to give our best. At the moment we are struggling to score goals, despite dominating possession. Northern Ireland put everyone in defence and we struggle to break sides like that down.We missed two penalties in the two key matches, that means that we had things under our control, but if you don't create chances you're going to find yourself in difficulty, I have faith, let's see in March, but we might even win it”

Switzerland against all odds stamped their ticket to Qatar 2022 after a 4-0 win against Bulgaria. In the first half, Switzerland dominated from the get go but couldn’t really score before half time but in the second half Noah Okafor converted with a header after Xherdan Shaqiri found him with a inch perfect cross, the second goal came in the 57th minute after Ruben Vargas lashed home a finish at the near post, and two late goals from Cedric Itten and Remo Freluer capped of an historical night in Lucerne.

Shaqiri said, “It's like a dream for me in my 100th game for Switzerland," an excited Shaqiri told reporters. “I have to pay a big compliment to the team. We believed in it, we went into this match with confidence. Seldom has a day been as beautiful. We also have to say thank you to (coach) Murat Yakin”, Shaqiri said. “It was not easy for him to follow in Vladimir Petkovic's footsteps. He did a great job, the team is in excellent shape. It's fun to play with this team. A lot of players were missing, it would be nice if everyone could have been there … we're all going to Qatar together!"

Also read: FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifiers: Portugal get shocked as Spain and Croatia qualify for next years World Cup

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