Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/487054
34 maltatoday, Sunday, 29 March 2015 Sport football Italy and Netherlands both fought back with late equalisers but settled for surprise draws, while Gareth Bale was again Wales' hero in European Championship quali- fying on Saturday. after a week of talk over foreign- born players in the Italy squad, Bra- zilian-born Eder curled home the equaliser for Italy, who salvaged a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria. all of the other goals came in the opening 20 minutes. an own goal by Iordan Minev had given Italy an early 1-0 lead, but a long shot from Ivelin Popov and a diving header by Ilijan Micanski put Bulgaria ahead. Sampdoria stiker Eder, making his debut for the azzurri, came on as a substitute for Simone Zaza and leveled the score in the 84th minute with a curling shot from 20 yards. Wesley Sneijder scored on a de- f lected shot in stoppage time to give the Netherlands a 1-1 draw at home with turkey. Burak yilmaz's goal in the first half put the visitors ahead, and the Dutch appeared second best until Sneijder's late effort took a def lec- tion off Klaas Jan Huntelaar in the second minute of stoppage time. aaron Ramsey received a pass from Bale and opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time. after the break, Bale f lat-footed Israel keeper Ofir Marciano with a curling free kick into the top cor- ner, a minute before Israel's Eitan tibi picked up a second yellow card for a foul on the Real Madrid man. Ramsey set up Bale for his second in the 77th minute as Wales went top of Group B and dealt Israel their first defeat of the campaign. In Group a, Czech Republic also dropped their first points in quali- fying as they were held to a 1-1 draw by latvia. aleksei Visnakovs opened the scoring for latvia after half an hour and the hosts could not respond until the 90th minute when Vaclav Pilar salvaged a point. Eidur Gudjohnsen celebrated his return from international retire- ment by setting Iceland on their way to a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan. the Bolton striker opened the scoring before Birkir Bjarnason's double completed a comfortable win. In Group H, Croatia dominated Norway 5-1 despite Vedran Cor- luka picking up two yellow cards in a five-minute span in the second half. Goals from Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic and Ivica Olic put Croatia comfortably ahead, and tarik Elyounoussi missed a penalty for Norway before Corluka was sent off. alexander tettey got one back for the visitors, but Croatia's 10 men found two more goals in the final stages to complete the rout. Montenegrin FA chief blasts 'barbarians' after Russia Euro qualifier abandoned MOMIR Djurdjevac, the general secretary of the Montengrin Fa, said fans had "left the impression of barbarians" after Friday's Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Russia was abandoned. after only a minute had been played, Russia goalkeeper Igor ak- infeev was hit on the head by a flare thrown from the stands and had to be stretchered off for hospital treat- ment. the match resumed after a sus- pension, only to be abandoned for good after the awarding of a penalty to Russia after 66 minutes – taken by Roman Shirokov and saved by Montenegro's Vukasin Poleksic – caused missiles to be thrown onto the pitch from the stands. the ball then went out of play, and when a Russia player went to re- trieve it he appeared to be hit by an object, which he showed to aytekin, who stopped the match for a second time. Fighting between players and staff from both teams broke out, with the Russia players walking off the pitch, followed by their Montenegro counterparts. Momir Djurdjevac told reporters: "these fans sing 'Montenegro we love you,' but throw f lares, insult ri- vals and cause all sorts of incidents every time they turn up. that's out- right hypocrisy. "We have left the impression of barbarians and this is a complete disaster. It seems we don't deserve to have a nation, a soccer team or a berth in a major tournament. "as far as I am concerned, the game should not have continued after the first-minute incident. We can only thank God that no one was seriously hurt. "We will in all likelihood pay a hefty fine and say goodbye to a ma- jor tournament – but what scares me is that this can happen again. Someone must step forward and say: 'Enough.' "Who wants to play for the nation- al team under such circumstances? "these players have a big dream and it's to qualify with our tiny na- tion for a major tournament, but we are going nowhere." UEFa has said it will await full re- ports on what happened before be- ginning disciplinary proceedings. In a statement, European foot- ball's governing body said crowd problems were the reason that the match had been called off. "the UEFa Euro 2016 qualify- ing match between Montenegro and Russia was abandoned in the 67th minute following crowd dis- turbances at the Gradski Stadion in Podgorica," the statement, pub- lished on the official UEFa website, said. Russia, level with Montenegro on five points, could be awarded the victory. the Russian Fa has submitted an official protest, with President Nikolai tolstoy saying: "We can only regret the ugly behaviour of Montenegro fans. "the Russian team were forced to continue the match, but I want to stress that we warned the delegates and have filed a protest to UEFa. In our view, the match should be for- feited by Montenegro." Russia Keeper Igor Akinfeev was hit on the back of his head by a flare a minute into the match Italy secure late point against bulgaria, Holland salvage point, Gareth bale scores twice Italy score late goal to draw against Bulgaria