LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Germany
recorded the biggest victory in the history of the European
Championship when they crushed San Marino 13-0 in a Group D
qualifier on Wednesday.
LarsBaron/GettyImages
Miroslav Klose scores his second goal.
Germany's huge win in Serravalle will increase the growing argument
that UEFA should reorganise the competition to prevent the top
nations playing one-sided matches against the tiniest countries on
the continent.
Lukas Podolski netted four times, while Miroslav Klose, Thomas
Hitzlsperger and Bastian Schweinsteiger all scored twice.
France recorded a victory no less sweet when they beat Italy 3-1 in
their Group B match in Paris in a quick re-run of the World Cup
final of two months ago when the Italians beat them on penalties to
become world champions.
Sidney Govou scored twice for France and Thierry Henry got their
other goal while Alberto Gilardino scored for the world champions
who have made a poor start to the qualifiers following their 1-1
home draw with Lithuania in Naples on Saturday.
Scotland maintained their good start in the same group with a 2-1
win over Lithuania in Kaunas.
There was an important away victory for England who overcame
Macedonia 1-0 in Group E to record their second successive win in
the group to make their best start to a qualifying competition for
10 years. Peter Crouch scored the only goal to take his tally for
England to 11 in his last 10 matches.
The Netherlands also maintained their 100 percent start in Group G
with a 3-0 win over Belarus in Eindhoven with two goals from Robin
van Persie and one from Dirk Kuyt.
There was a big shock in Belfast where Northern Ireland, who lost
3-0 at home to Iceland on Saturday, recovered to beat Spain 3-2 in
Group F with David Healy scoring a hat-trick.
The result evoked memories of one of Northern Ireland's greatest
wins -- a 1-0 victory over Spain in the 1982 World Cup finals --
and was the biggest upset of Wednesday's 21 matches.
Georgia looked like they would have that honour when they led
Ukraine 2-1 in their Group B match with 30 minutes to go but the
hosts hit back to win 3-2 with goals from Ruslan Rotan and Andriy
Rusol.
Andriy Shevchenko had put Ukraine ahead after 31 minutes.
Both of the countries that were forced to play away from home won,
with Turkey beating Malta 2-0 in their Group C match in Frankfurt
and Israel swamping Andorra 4-1 in their Group E game played in
Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Turkey were forced to forfeit home advantage following problems in
their World Cup qualifier against Switzerland last November while
Israel were ordered to play outside the Jewish state because of
security worries in the Middle East.
Israel are hoping to have that ruling overturned by European
soccer's governing body UEFA next week.
Denmark scored a 2-0 win away to Iceland in Group F while in
another match between neighbours Czech Republic beat Slovakia 3-0
in Bratislava in their Group D derby.
Poland just about put Saturday's stunning home loss to Finland
behind them with a 1-1 draw against Serbia in Group A while Hungary
came back from their 4-1 home defeat by Norway to win their Group C
match 3-1 in Bosnia.
No team, of course, scored as many goals as Germany, who stole the
spotlight with their biggest competitive win outside Olympic soccer
and smashed the old competition record set when Spain beat Malta
12-1 in a qualifier nearly 23 years ago.
o.O 13 goals.......woah that a new record 
