THE NETHERLANDS AND Belgium both cruised to success in their World Cup qualifiers tonight as they went on goalscoring sprees.
The Dutch defeated Gibraltar 7-0 while Belgium went one better as they routed Belarus 8-0 but both were bettered by Japan in their Asian qualifier as they hit the net 14 times in a win over Mongolia.
In the European qualifiers, Belgium went to the top of Group E as they thrashed Belarus despite resting stars like Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.
Roberto Martinez saw his team go ahead 4-0 at half-time and match that tally in the second half. Michy Batshuayi opened the scoring, Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke netted in the second half while Brighton’s Leandro Trossard and Leicester City’s Dennis Praet both grabbed their first international goals as well.
Wales defeated Czech Republic 1-0 in the same group.
In Group G the Netherlands were only in front 1-0 at half-time away to Gibraltar but made amends by bagging six second-half goals.
Former Man United player Memphis Depay scored twice, current Man United player Donny Van De Beek scored once while Liverpool’s Georginio Wijnaldum also found the net in their 7-0 success.
Norway won 1-0 away to Montenegro in the same group, Alexander Soerloth, the scorer, and both sides there are on six points along with Netherlands.
Turkey are still top but only on seven points after they lost a 3-1 advantage at home to Latvia and had to settle for the eventual 3-3 draw.
In Group H it finished 3-0 in favour of Croatia with Ivan Perisic and Luka Modric both scoring against Malta while Russia lost 2-1 to Slovakia and Cyprus beat Slovenia 1-0.
Meanwhie Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu hailed his team’s ruthless streak after thrashing Mongolia 14-0 on Tuesday for their biggest-ever World Cup qualifying win.
Japan, who are looking to reach their seventh World Cup in a row at Qatar in 2022, scored five first-half goals to take complete control of the game against the hapless Mongolians.
But the Blue Samurai refused to take their foot off the gas, notching another nine after the break to set a new qualifying record and finish just one goal short of their all-time biggest win.
“You could see from the score that the two teams were at a different level, but it wasn’t about our opponents — it was about how to keep our concentration going into the match,” said Moriyasu, whose team has won all five of its qualifiers so far, scoring 26 goals and conceding none.
Japan had not played a World Cup qualifier since November 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But they showed no signs of rustiness as Southampton forward Takumi Minamino gave them the lead in the 13th minute and it was one-way traffic after that with Werder Bremen striker Yuya Osako scoring a hat-trick
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