London: Italy were held to a disappointing 2-2 draw by Bulgaria as the rest of Europe's leading sides made winning starts in their first matches in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup on Friday.
Showing little of the form that took the team to the European Championship final, the Italians were denied victory in their Group B opener when Georgi Milanov equalized for Bulgaria — ranked 89th in the world — in the 66th minute in Sofia.
That was the only big surprise of the opening round of qualifiers, although Portugal was hardly impressive in rallying to a 2-1 win over unheralded Luxembourg, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the equalizer for the visitors in a week when he has been speaking of "feeling sad" because of professional reasons at Real Madrid.
Germany would also have been expected to beat the Faeroe Islands by a bigger margin than 3-0, leaving England to record the most eye-catching result of the continent's big guns — 5-0 at Moldova in Group H.
The Netherlands ended a four-match losing run by beating Turkey 2-0 in what looked to be a tricky opening match for the Dutch in Group D, while France overcame Finland 1-0 thanks to a goal by Abou Diaby in coach Didier Deschamps' first competitive match as France coach. The standout score came in Liechtenstein, where the hosts were thumped 8-1 by Bosnia.
In CONCACAF region World Cup qualifiers, the surprise result was Jamaica's 2-1 home win over the United States. Rodolph Austin and Luton Shelton scored from free kicks as the Jamaicans beat the US for the first time in 19 attempts despite having gone goal down after just 35 seconds when Clint Dempsey scored.
Canada beat visiting Panama 1-0, with Mexico away to Costa Rica in a late game.
Italy's only other game since their mauling at the hands of Spain was a 3-2 loss to England in a friendly last month and the draw in Sofia — where the Azzurri have never won in five matches — means a likely battle with the Czech Republic and Denmark for the sole automatic qualifying spot in the group.
"We always have problems at the beginning of the season. It's a shame we didn't manage to score a third goal when we were winning 2-1," Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said. "We lacked pace and rhythm."
With Mario Balotelli injured and Antonio Cassano dropped, the Argentine-born Pablo Osvaldo staked his claim for a regular run as striker in the team with two goals before half time, after a rare mistake by goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon allowed Stanislav Manolev to put Bulgaria in front in the 30th.
However, Milanov's goal means Italy have conceded as many goals in one World Cup qualifier as they did in the entire qualifying campaign for Euro 2012. Prandelli's side should gain revenge in Tuesday's match against lowly Malta.
Ronaldo celebrated his goal against Luxembourg, which took his tally in internationals to 37, with a clenched fist but it needed a well-taken effort by Helder Postiga to get the Portuguese out of trouble against a home team ranked 106th in the FIFA list.
Mario Goetze's first-half goal and a double after the break by fellow playmaker Mesut Oezil saw Germany labor to victory over Faeroe Islands, when many would have expecting a score closer to double figures.
"We knew they would defend well," Germany forward Thomas Mueller said, "but we won, we took the three points. We missed some chances but we can live with 3-0."
Robin van Persie scored in the 17th minute for his 30th international goal and Luciano Narsingh grabbed the other in second-half stoppage time as the Netherlands earned a first win since May. Just as pleasing will have been the clean sheet kept by a revamped back four, with their porous defense having been a problem in recent years.
Diaby, fully fit after a series of injury problems in recent seasons, has started the new Premier League campaign in impressive fashion with Arsenal and the rangy midfielder continued his good form by netting France's only goal, in the 20th minute.
"I hadn't played for France for a long time," said Diaby, whose last competitive match for his national team came in June last year. "I'm happy to be back. It's a huge satisfaction to get the win."
Next up for France is a home match against Belarus, the team that beat Les Bleus away in Euro qualifying two years ago.
David Villa, making his first appearance for Spain since November because of injury, extended his national-record tally for Spain to 52 goals in the reigning world champions' easy win over Saudi Arabia.
Pedro Rodriguez scored a goal in each half, while Santi Cazorla and substitute Xavi Hernandez also found the net for the Spanish, who begin their World Cup qualifying campaign on Tuesday.
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