Spain began life under their new coach Julien Lopetegui in perfect style while Gareth Bale inspired Wales and Kosovo earned a historic point in World Cup qualifiers on Monday.
The Night Of Champions
Lopetegui enjoyed a perfect competitive debut as Diego Costa, David Silva and Alvaro Morata all hit doubles in an 8-0 drubbing of Liechtenstein in Leon on Monday.
Over in Cardiff, Real Madrid forward Bale teed up Sam Vokes for a 38th-minute opener and then scored his 23rd and 24th international goals either side of an effort by Joe Allen, who registered his first in a 4-0 crushing of Moldova.
Elsewhere Daryl Murphy’s first ever international goal secured the Republic of Ireland a 2-2 draw against Serbia in Belgrade, and 10-man Italy beat Israel 3-1 in Haifa.
But arguably the performance of the night was in Turku where Valon Berisha made history, scoring Kosovo’s first goal on their competitive debut as they came from behind to draw 1-1 away to Finland.
The goal gave Kosovo a precious point in qualifying Group I after Paulus Arajuuri had put Finland in front from close range in the 18th minute.
Kosova Makes FIFA Debut
Kosovo were accepted into FIFA in May, and this was a remarkable result given that world football’s governing body only gave their approval for a host of players to represent the Balkan outfit earlier on Monday. Among those given the green light at the last minute were goalkeeper and captain Samir Ujkani, previously capped by Albania, Albert Bunjaku, who featured for Switzerland at the 2010 World Cup, and goal-scorer Berisha, who was playing for Norway as recently as June.
With several thousand Kosovans living in the Turku region, there was a sizeable support for the away side in their first ever competitive outing. Their World Cup bow comes after their Olympic debut at the Rio Games last month, with Kosovo being accepted by the International Olympic Committee in 2014. Spain’s comprehensive win put them atop Group G ahead of Italy on goal difference.
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