The big news: Hazard’s injury overshadows Belgium’s big win
Belgium thrashed Estonia 8-1 in their World Cup qualifier in Brussels on Sunday. With the win, Belgium extended their lead at the top of Group H. Dries Mertens and Romelu Lukaku scored a brace as Thomas Meunier, Eden Hazard and Yannick Carrasco were on target with one goal apiece. Estonia’s Ragnar Klavan scored an own goal to complete an embarrassing rout for Estonia.
However, Chelsea playmaker Hazard left the field with an apparent knee injury. Henri Anier scored Estonia’s lone goal of the match. Roberto Martinez’s team have won all four of their group games, scoring 21 goals.
Other top stories:
- Manchester United’s Memphis Depay scored twice as the Netherlands beat Luxembourg 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday. Arjen Robben had given the Dutch the lead after which Maxime Chanot scored from the spot to level the score. Depay came off the bench to score with a header and free-kick to secure the win.
- England interim manager Gareth Southgate wants to know within a month whether the Football Association will appoint him as England manager. Southgate’s last game will be Tuesday’s friendly against Spain at Wembley. After the game, the Football Association committee will make a decision on who will be given the permanent job.
- Tottenham striker Harry Kane has been released from the England squad before Tuesday’s friendly against Spain. Kane is yet to recover an ankle injury he sustained in September. He did not feature in England’s World Cup qualifying win over Scotland as well.
- Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and missed a penalty as Portugal defeated Latvia 4-1. Ronaldo opened the scoring from the spot but missed another penalty after the break. Arturs Zjuzins equalised for Latvia before William Carvalho regained the lead. Ronaldo’s volley made it 3-1 and Bruno Alves headed the fourth goal to put away the match.
- Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive has confirmed that Olympic champion Usain Bolt will train with the team. Hans-Joachim Watzke said in an interview that “it was no joke” and “not a marketing move”. Watzke was responding to a report in the Guardian, which said that Bolt planned to train with Dortmund and is looking to begin his football career once he retires from running.
- In a bizarre incident, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko did the unthinkable during Bosnia’s 1-1 draw with Greece on Sunday. The Roma striker was sent off for pulling down Greece’s Kyriakos Papadopoulos’ shorts. Dzeko tried to hold onto the ball when brought to ground only to have the ball wrestled from him by Papadopoulos. Dzeko reacted by pulling down the defender’s shorts.
- Delhi Dynamos came back from a goal down to play out a 2-2 draw against Atletico de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. Kolkata drew first blood through Iain Hume in the first half. Delhi were down to 10 men as Badara Badji received his second straight yellow card. Milan Singh equalised in the 63rd minute, only for Kolkata’s Javi Lara to regain the lead for Kolkata. However, Delhi’s Florent Malouda scored the equalizer to get the draw.