Sports

After fireworks, Croatia, Italy stay level

AP

After all the fireworks at the San Siro on Sunday, Italy and Croatia settled for a 1-1 draw and remained level atop Group H in qualifying for the European championships.

The match had to be suspended for 10 minutes late in the second half after Croatia fans threw fireworks onto the pitch. Riot police went into the stands and eventually the last 17 minutes were played. There was a shorter disruption under similar circumstances in the first half.

Croatia remained in top spot on goal difference from Italy, with Norway a point behind following its win in Azerbaijan.

In other groups, Wales held Belgium to a 0-0 draw in Brussels and the Netherlands crushed latvia 6-0.

The Netherlands victory eased pressure on coach Guus Hiddink who replaced louis Van Gaal after the World Cup.

GROUP A

The Czech Republic moved atop Group A with four wins from four by beating Iceland 2-1 thanks to a Pavel Kaderabek header in first-half injury time and a second-half own goal by Jon Dadi Bodvarsson. Iceland, which dropped to second following its first defeat in qualifying, had taken an early lead through Ragnar Sigurdsson.

Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar each scored twice while Robin van Persie and Jeffrey Bruma also found the net as the Dutch got their European Championship Group A qualifying campaign back on track.

Turkey recorded its first win in Group A by beating Kazakhstan 3-1 in Istanbul.

GROUP B

Israel and Wales kept the group wide open with results  on Sunday. Gil Vermouth and Omer Damari gave Israel the lead and Eran Zahavi closed out the scoring.

Israel leads the group with nine points from three games, one point more than Wales, which also has played a game more. George Efrem scored a hat trick as Cyprus beat Andorra 5-0.

Gareth Bale was the lone threat for the Welsh but could not get past goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. At the other end, Eden Hazard again failed to provide the decisive thrust for his country.

GROUP H

Antonio Candreva scored his first goal for Italy against the run of play in the 11th minute but Croatia leveled just four minutes later through Ivan Perisic following a mistake from Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

Croatia had several glaring misses. Both remained level on 10 points, one ahead of Norway, which won 1-0 in Azerbaijan.

Malta picked up its first point with a 1-1 draw away to Bulgaria, which moved onto four points.