🌍 WCQ: England thrash Albania; Italy draw Switzerland; Scotland & NI win | OneFootball

More World Cup qualification action continued on Friday night with games kicking off across Europe.

Here is how everything unfolded.

England v Albania

Scorers: Maguire 9′, Kane 18′, 33′, 45+1′, Henderson 28′

England hosted Albania at Wembley and secured a top-two finish after a dominant win.

The hosts were in complete control of the match in the first half where a header from Harry Maguire saw Gareth Southgate’s men take an early lead.

Minutes later, however, Jordan Pickford made an important save to keep Albania from equalising.

England’s pressure then continued to be too much for the visitors and Harry Kane (perfect hat-trick) and Jordan Henderson got in on the action.

Coming out after the break the hosts continued to maintain control of the match but Albania did enough to stifle any threats.

As a result, the second half was a goalless encounter seeing things end 5-0.

Italy v Switzerland

Scorers: Di Lorenzo 35; Widmer 11′

Italy hosted Switzerland at the Stadio Olimpico in a mouth-watering qualifier where the sides share the points.

The visitors took an early lead after a rocket of a strike from Silvan Widmer found the back of the net roughly 10 minutes in.

Eventually, the Euro 2020 winners were able to get back on level terms when Giovanni Di Lorenzo made things 1-1 before the break.

Despite a handful of opportunities in the second half, neither side could find a late winner. Italy had the best chance in the 90th minute but Jorginho skied his penalty over the bar.

In the end, things finished 1-1 and the teams are level on points in the table.

Northern Ireland v Lithuania

Scorers: Šatkus 17′ (OG)

Northern Ireland welcomed Lithuania to Windsor Park and the hosts walked away as the lucky ones after edging their opponents.

Despite controlling most of the match, Northern Ireland took the lead thanks to an own-goal from Benas Šatkus.

The hosts continued to push for another and had more shots and held more possession but couldn’t add to their tally.

Instead, goals from Josh Magennis and Ali McCann were ruled out.

In the end, they held on for the 1-0 win.

Moldova v Scotland

Scorers: Patterson 38′, Adams 65′

Scotland lunged forward in attack right from the start only to be frustrated multiple times by goalkeeper Stanislav Namașco in the first half. But despite their control of the game, it wasn’t one-way traffic.

Down at the other end, Craig Gordon was called into action twice (including making a save on Artur Ioniță) to keep Moldova from finding the net first.

Eventually, Scotland’s pressure cracked the hosts and Nathan Patterson’s first goal for his country made things 1-0 right before the break.

As the second half kicked off, Moldova settled into the match and limited Scotland’s control of the game. However, Patterson would go on to set up Ché Adams who doubled the lead for the visitors.

The match then ended with some drama as VAR awarded the hosts a late penalty but Vadim Rață’s shot was saved by Gordon to see things end 2-0.

Scotland have now secured themselves at least a World Cup play-off spot.

Other results…

The action continues on Saturday with seven more fixtures.