Beattie to the rescue

Round-up: Craig Beattie's late strike in Scotland's 2-1 win against Georgia at Hampden Park on Saturday kept his side on top…

Round-up:Craig Beattie's late strike in Scotland's 2-1 win against Georgia at Hampden Park on Saturday kept his side on top of Group B. Beattie's dramatic winner gave Scotland a win which looked unlikely for much of the second half.

Kris Boyd got Alex McLeish's reign off to the perfect start when his 10th-minute header put Scotland in front, but the visitors slowly gained a foothold in the game and Shota Arveladze deservedly headed them level just before the interval.

In the same group, Nicolas Anelka was back in favour with coach Raymond Domenech after scoring the winner for France against Lithuania in a Euro 2008 Group B qualifier on Saturday.

The former enfant terrible of French soccer, who was left out of the squad for three years after snubbing a late call-up in 2002, produced a man-of-the-match performance in the 1-0 victory in Kaunas.

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In Groub C Turkey stunned arch-rivals and European champions Greece 4-1 in Athens on Saturday and took a huge step towards qualifying for the finals in Austria and Switzerland.

There was another upset in the group for all the wrong reasons as the Norway-Bosnia game in Oslo was halted shortly after it began when fans threw flares on to the field, some hitting players, while one set an advertising hoarding ablaze.

The match resumed 30 minutes later after English referee Mike Riley took the players off the field. Bosnia eventually won 2-1 to move above Norway into third place behind Greece.

Spain revived their qualifying hopes in Group F with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Denmark, who had defender Niclas Jensen red-carded after 19 minutes.

Strikers Fernando Morientes and David Villa got the first-half goals that lifted Spain to fourth spot, a point behind the Danes, four adrift of Northern Ireland, who have played a game more, and six behind leaders Sweden.

Croatia stayed on course for the finals but had to come from behind to beat visiting Macedonia 2-1 in Zagreb in their Group E match.

Poland were the highest scorers as they thrashed Azerbaijan 5-0 in Group A to go top after Serbia suffered a shock 2-1 defeat in Kazakhstan in the same section.

Poland moved to the top with 13 points from six matches, two points clear of Finland who did not play and have a match in hand.

Portugal are third, ahead of Serbia who also have 10 points, after a 4-0 rout of Belgium in which winger Cristiano Ronaldo continued the sparkling form he has shown for Manchester United by scoring twice.