Belgium Qualify for Russia 2018

The streets of Brussels will be bouncing tonight, as Belgium became the first team to progress from the European groups, becoming the sixth side to reach the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ thanks to Romelu Lukaku’s winner in Greece.

Meanwhile, the picture is much less clear across Groups A, B and I, as France fired blanks against Luxembourg, Switzerland and Portugal remain relentless, and Croatia belatedly returned to top spot.

Results
3 September
Group A: Belarus 0-4 Sweden, Netherlands 3-1 Bulgaria, France 0-0 Luxembourg
Group B: Faroe Islands 1-0 Andorra, Hungary 0-1 Portugal, Latvia 0-3 Switzerland
Group H: Estonia 1-0 Cyprus, Gibraltar 0-4 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece 1-2 Belgium
Group I: Croatia 1-0 Kosovo

Match of the day

Greece 1-2 Belgium

Having seen Greece held to a drab 0-0 draw to Estonia on Thursday, while Belgium fired nine past Gibraltar, some would have been forgiven for expecting Roberto Martinez and Co. to stamp their ticket with relative ease. However, the hosts they found in Piraeus were well organised an expansive, with only a superb fingertip save by Thibaut Courtois forcing the woodwork to rescue the qualification-chasing Belgians.

The game swung on a frenetic few minutes in the second half, though. Jan Vertonghen’s joy at hitting a sizzling opener was dashed when Zeca squared things up moments later, but Lukaku was on hand to head the Red Devils to Russia.