France’s hopes of automatic qualification hit a snag when the Group A leaders were surprisingly held to a 0-0 draw by Luxembourg in Toulouse. France, who had beaten Holland 4-0 on Thursday, were unable to break Luxembourg’s stout resistance despite dominating possession and hitting the bar twice for a result that left them only a point clear at the top of the group.
France almost broke the deadlock five minutes before half-time when Antoine Griezmann hit the bar from a free-kick. After 63 minutes Djibril Sidibe had a header well saved by the Luxembourg goalkeeper Jonathan Joubert and Paul Pogba headed against the bar 10 minutes later.
However, there was almost a nasty sting in the tail for France in the 78th minute when the Luxembourg Gelson Rodrigues burst into the box and struck the post with an angled shot.
Belgium, meanwhile, booked their place at the World Cup with two qualifying games to spare after beating Greece 2-1 in Athens thanks to a 74th-minute goal from Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku. The outcome of the match was decided in a four-minute spell with Belgium taking the lead through Jan Vertonghen in the 70th minute only for Greece to equalise three minutes later through José Carlos Gonçalves Rodrigues. Agencies The result gave Belgium an unassailable eight-point lead over Bosnia in Group H.
Elsewhere in Group A, second-placed Sweden bounced back from their 3-2 defeat by Bulgaria with a 4-0 away victory over Belarus. They took an early lead when Emil Forsberg collected a long diagonal pass and rounded the keeper to score.
Six minutes later the Belarus defender Mikhail Sivakov tried to dribble his way out of trouble but was robbed by Christoffer Nyman, who fired home. Sweden added a third before half-time, Forsberg turning provider after collecting another long pass and sliding it into the path of Marcus Berg, who had the simple task of slotting the ball into an empty net. Sweden’s captain Andreas Granqvist completed the scoring with an 84th-minute penalty.
Holland kept alive their hopes in Group A with the Brighton midfielder Davy Pröpper scoring two goals, his first in international football, in the 3-1 win over Bulgaria.
Pröpper, brought into the starting line-up by Dick Advocaat to replace veteran Wesley Sneijder, settled Dutch nerves when he tapped home after seven minutes. Arjen Robben doubled the lead in the 67th minute with his 34th international goal but Georgi Kostadinov immediately reduced the deficit before Pröpper scored with a well-placed header 10 minutes from time.
In Group B the leaders Switzerland maintained their 100% record by beating Latvia 3-0 with Haris Seferovic, Blerim Dzemaili and Ricardo Rodríguez on target. Portugal, meanwhile, made hard work of defeating Hungary, who played for an hour with 10 men after Tamas Priskin was sent off for an elbow on Pepe. The only goal of the game in Budapest came three minutes into the second half when Andre Silva headed home from close range after Cristiano Ronaldo had supplied the cross. “We were always in control, but it was always a difficult and uncertain match,” said Portugal coach’s Fernando Santos.