• World Cup qualifying

Wales pay the price, Republic of Ireland hit four

Lewis Price was at fault for Croatia's opener © PA Photos

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A dramatic night of World Cup qualifying produced plenty of talking points on Tuesday, with England's clash against Poland called off, while Germany threw away a four-goal lead at home to Sweden. Republic of Ireland won but Wales and Scotland both lost, and Northern Ireland almost stunned Portugal.

Wales' fading World Cup qualification hopes all but fizzled out as a comedy goalkeeping error helped Croatia to an easy 2-0 victory on home soil.

Chris Coleman's side had hoped to build on their thrilling win over Scotland by taking something away from Croatia, but Lewis Price gifted Mario Mandzukic the opener before the hosts added a further strike through Eduardo. Defeat leaves Wales on three points from four games.

The visitors had started brightly enough for the first 26 minutes, but a poor backpass by Ashley Williams sparked their downfall. Goalkeeper Price attempted to hammer the ball clear but only succeeded in belting it straight at Mandzukic, leaving the striker with the simple task of rolling the loose ball into an empty net.

Croatia wasted several further chances to put the game out of reach, with Mandzukic particularly wasteful when one-on-one with Price, but former Arsenal man Eduardo effectively killed the game off on the hour from close range.

Scotland's campaign is also in tatters as they were beaten 2-0 by Belgium. Goals from Christian Benteke and Vincent Kompany did the damage against Craig Levein's men, who are now bottom of the group on two points.

The visitors nearly took the lead when Shaun Maloney's free-kick was brilliantly plucked out of the top corner by Thibaut Courtois. However, the majority of the chances fell Belgium's way, with Benteke notching the opener on 69 minutes before Kompany rifled home a second two minutes later.

Niall McGinn opened the scoring for Northern Ireland © PA Photos

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The group appears to be a straight shootout between Croatia and Belgium - both on 10 points - after Serbia were beaten 1-0 by Macedonia. Victory came courtesy of Agim Ibraimi's penalty after Serbia's Nenad Tomovic was sent off.

Republic of Ireland recovered from their 6-1 humbling at the hands of Germany with a 4-1 victory over Faroe Islands in Group C. The win lifts Ireland within a point of second-placed Sweden on six points.

It took until the second half for Giovanni Trapattoni's men to strike, with Marc Wilson breaking the deadlock a minute after the interval. Jon Walters then doubled the lead, only to see Arnbjorn Hansen halve the deficit with 20 minutes remaining. It eventually needed a Pol Johannes Justinussen own goal to settle matters before Darren O'Dea's header added a late fourth.

Ireland's qualification hopes were done no favours by Germany's capitulation at home to Sweden, drawing 4-4 having led 4-0.

Miroslav Klose moved closer to becoming Germany's all-time top goalscorer with a double early on before Per Mertesacker added a third for the hosts prior to half-time. Once Mesut Ozil made it 4-0 early in the second half, Germany's 14th consecutive win in qualifying competitions seemed to be in the bank, but they had not counted on such a dramatic revival.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mikael Lustig got the comeback underway in the 62nd and 64th minutes before Johan Elmander brought them back to within a goal with 14 minutes left to play. The stage was then set for Rasmus Elm to grab an equaliser in the third minute of stoppage-time to earn Sweden a precious draw.

The group's other fixture saw Austria beat Kazakhsthan 4-0 thanks to goals from Marc Janko(2), David Alaba and Martin Harnik.

In Group F, Northern Ireland came within 10 minutes of pulling off a shock win over Portugal, only to draw 1-1 in Porto. The visitors led for 50 minutes following Niall McGinn's opener on the half-hour, but they finally conceded to Helder Postiga ten minutes from time.

Russia remain top of Group F by five points after they maintained a 100 per cent record, beating Azerbaijan 1-0 at the Luzhniki Stadium. The game proved to be surprisingly difficult for Fabio Capello's side, who eventually made a breakthrough six minutes from time when Roman Shirokov netted from the spot.

Israel are level on seven points with Portugal, after they overcame Luxembourg 3-0 on home soil. Tomer Hemed(2) and Eden Ben Basat provided the goals.

Elsewhere, Olivier Giroud's header deep into stoppage-time salvaged a deserved 1-1 draw for France against world champions Spain in Madrid and ended the hosts' run of 24 consecutive qualifying victories.

Sergio Ramos had fired home after his initial effort had come off a post in the 26th minute to give Spain the lead but they were left to rue Cesc Fabregas' missed penalty just before half-time. Karim Benzema and Moussa Sissoko looked to have squandered France's best chances to claim a point as they missed clear openings late on but with the last attack of the game Franck Ribery crossed for Giroud to head low into the far corner.

For a full round-up of Tuesday's World Cup qualifying action, click here.

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