• Spain held as England, Germany, Italy and Sweden make winning starts
  • Tajikistan kicked off the day’s qualifiers by sweeping aside Mongolia
  • Canada and Curaçao among the goals in Concacaf’s qualifiers

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ qualifying kicked off for numerous nations across the UEFA and Concacaf zones as action continued on Thursday.

There were few upsets in Europe as the likes of England, Italy and Germany impressed at home. Eyebrows were raised, however, as Greece collected a 1-1 draw in Spain against the 2010 World Cup champions.

The day started with a lone match in Asia as Tajikistan made light work of Mongolia with three unanswered goals. Concacaf action then provided the conclusion, with Guus Hiddink resuming his lengthy World Cup odyssey by guiding Curacao to a healthy win, while Canada were equally untroubled in their opening encounter.

FIFA.com wraps up all the results, action and stand-out statistics. Live coverage of Qatar 2022 qualifiers resumes on Saturday with a host of UEFA match-ups and six more matches in Concacaf.

Results

Bulgaria 1-3 Switzerland
  • Switzerland opened Group C play with a fairly comfortable win over opponents Bulgaria in Sofia. Breel Embolo, Haris Seferovic and Steven Zuber put the Swiss three goals in front before the match was 15 minutes old, the fastest three-goal lead in the national team’s history. Bulgaria responded with a goal of their own when Kiril Despodov struck at the beginning of the second half. However, Vladimir Petkovic’s charges did enough to grab the three points. Switzerland have now lost just once in their last 31 World Cup qualifiers, with the sole defeat in that sequence a 2-0 loss against Portugal on 10 October 2017.

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