The 2018 World Cup is only two years away and the first qualifiers have happened. We asked Iain Macintosh to summarise how things went in an international football edition of Heroes & Villains.
HEROES
Congratulations to Kosovo, the newest member of the FIFA family, who picked up their first ever point in their first ever game on Monday. Valon Berisha, who won 19 caps with Norway before the governing body approved his switch to the country of his parents, struck a decisive penalty on the hour to give Kosovo a share of the points against Finland. Given that administrative hold-ups had caused so much uncertainty in the Kosovo camp, to the extent that Berisha himself only found out he was playing on the day of the game, this was an excellent result.
The rehabilitation of Roberto Martinez began apace with a comfortable 3-0 win for Belgium over Cyprus. Who said that he would struggle to work with his former player Romelu Lukaku? The Belgian forward struck twice to give his manager the perfect start to qualifying. Stiffer challenges await, of course, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against a solid, clever side like Bosnia & Herzegovina, but that can wait. It has been a long time since Martinez won a game, so let's allow him to enjoy this first and not credit Thierry Henry too much.
Somewhere, deep in the multiverse, an alternative Sam Allardyce sits in front of an alternative press pack and attempts to explain why England could only manage a 0-0 draw with 10-man Slovakia; two points dropped in a qualifying group that is more awkward than many assume and another pedestrian performance intensifies the doubts in the new manager. Meanwhile, in this branch of the multiverse, thank goodness for Adam Lallana as the Three Lions got Big Sam's international career off to a winning start with a late 1-0 victory.
Italy could only score one goal in Malta. Croatia could only score one goal in Malta. Scotland scored five. Okay, so there were a few worrying moments in the first half and, yes, we'll accept that Malta eased the task by losing two men (one in injury time) to red cards, but this was still a very encouraging performance for Gordon Strachan. Scotland were the only one of the home nations to miss out on Euro 2016 but their 5-1 win shows they have wasted little time in trying to make up for that little humiliation.
Germany were far from impressive in the opening games of their last qualification campaign, taking just four points from their first three games. They've started with far more assurance this year. Joachim Low, who has just completed a decade in the hot seat, faced a tricky start away in Norway, but the game was all wrapped up in under an hour and finished 3-0. With the other group's contenders, the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland, drawing against each other, there's already a familiar look to the table.