Finland hosted Lithuania on Thursday evening in an important qualifying match. To begin with, it looked bleak for the home team.
In the 25th minute, Pijus Sirvys gave the away team the lead and Finland's chances of reaching the World Championship looked small.
In the second half, however, the turnaround came. Benjamin Källman equalized, and shortly afterwards Adam Markhiyev made it 2–1. Finland held on and took three important points.
After six matches played, Finland has 10 points – as many as group leader the Netherlands and second-placed Poland. The Netherlands has, however, played four matches and Poland five. Finland meets the Netherlands on Sunday.
For Denmark, the evening was much more comfortable. In the match against Belarus, which was played on neutral ground in Hungary, there was no doubt about it and Denmark won with a crushing 6–0. Both Rasmus Højlund and Anders Dreyer became two-goal scorers. Denmark leads its group in the World Championship qualifying round after three matches played, with as many points as second-placed Scotland.
Crushing numbers were also achieved by Austria, which won 10–0 against San Marino. Marko Arnautović scored four goals and thus became Austria's best goal scorer of all time.
The Faroe Islands, with their 50,000 inhabitants, managed to beat Montenegro 4–0.
