Football FanCast columnist Sunit Thakurta looks back at the weekends World Cup qualifiers.

Enough of matters relating to club football! For once let us turn our attention to international football. Saturday was a busy day globally as national teams from all the continents embarked on a two-year football journey in their bid to qualify for South Africa 2010. While in some continents such as Asia and South America the qualification started in earnest, it was the start of a grueling campaign across Europe and there were some noteworthy surprises.

I'll look at Europe extensively given the serious competition this continent involves.

Group-1: Portugal, under new coach Carlos Quieroz, were the main attractions in this group and they stamped their authority by seeing off tiny Malta 4-0 in Valletta although Nani and company had to wait for the last 29 minutes of the match to add three goals to a first-half own goal by Malta's Brian Said. Elsewhere in the group, two Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark were held to goalless away draws by Albania and Hungary respectively.

Group-2: 2004 European champions Greece recorded a comfortable 3-0 victory away to Luxembourg with goals coming from Vassilis Torosidis, Theofanis Gekas and Angelos Charisteas.

Israel rallied from two goals down to hold Switzerland 2-2 in Ottmar Hietzfeld's first competitive game in charge at the Ramat Gan stadium in Tel Aviv. Israel's Ben Sahar scored the all-important equalizer late on in the game to earn a point for his country.

Latvia recorded a 2-1 victory over Moldova to round off the group.

Group-3: Northern Ireland should have had a penalty allowed in Bratislava as Nigel Worthington watched his side play the better football but was hit hard by two second-half goals from Martin Skrtel and Martin Hamsik. Although the Irish pulled one goal back late on courtesy of an own goal, it was not enough to bring something back from Slovakia.

Poland was less than impressive in their opening home 1-1 draw with a surprisingly attacking Slovenian side. Czech Republic and San Marino were not involved on saturday.

Group-4: 2006 World Cup semi-finalist and hosts Germany started their campaign with an emphatic 6-0 away win against Liechtenstein. Lukas Podolski scored a brace that set the EURO 2008 runners-up on their merry way.

Wales had to work extremely hard at the closed Millenium Stadium in front of a sparse Welsh crowd against a defensive minded Azerbaijan side. Jason Koumas saw his penalty and the rebound saved by the impressive debutant Azeri keeper Kamran Arhayev in the 67th minute. Azerbaijan, coached by former German national team boss Berti Vogts, had a player sent off when Brazilian- born Fabio Luis Ramim was shown the exit door with a second bookable offence. With time running out for John Toshak's side to grab all three points, substitute Sam Vokes netted the winner when he stabbed home from close range after the Azeri defence failed to clear an inswinging Jason Koumas corner kick.

Russia and Finland were not involved at the weekend.

Group-5: This group involves European champions Spain, EURO 2008 semi-finalists Turkey, Armenia, Bosnia, Belgium and Estonia. All the games went according to predictions with the Spaniards made to work hard for a 1-0 win by the Bosnians. Turkey's match against Armenia at Yerevan took a more political importance rather than a footballing one. The Turks came out with an expected 2-0 win yet it marked the first time that the two sides played an international game after years of animosity over the killings of tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks in World War 1. The match was watched by the Turkish and Armenian leaders with an ambition to forge closer links between the two countries. In the other game Belgium came out home winners with a 3-2 win over Estonia courtesy of a brace from Wesley Sonck.

Group-6: Fabio Capello started his competitive career as an England coach with a laboured and dull 2-0 victory against a bunch of part-time Andorran side at the Spanish city of Barcelona. Substitute Joe Cole saved a certain embarrassing situation for his manager and team-mates with a timely second-half brace but the English performance is still a lot to be desired before a stern test at Zagreb that awaits them this Wednesday against nemesis Croatia who were impressive in a 3-0 home win against Khazakhstan.

In other Group 6 games the neighbours Ukraine and Belarus produced a dull affair at Kiev which had to be decided by a late Andriy Shevchenko penalty.

Group-7: France kept faith with coach Raymond Domenech after a shock first-round exit from EURO 2008, yet the French boss did his reputation no good by watching his side crash to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of EURO 2008 co-hosts Austria who gave their new coach Karol Bruckner a stunning competitive start. Marc Janko and Rene Aufhauser put the hosts 2-0 up at half-time following dreadful French defensive lapses but Sidney Govou's stunning goal gave Les Bleus hope in Vienna which was eventually dashed by a penalty from captain Andreas Ivanshitz. France need to improve dramatically before a difficult game against Serbia on Wednesday.

Romania, which exited along with France at the European champions earlier this summer, missed key players as they crashed to a 3-0 home loss against Lithuania.

Serbia produced an uneventful display yet it was enough to see off the the Faroe Islands 2-0 at Belgrade in Radomir Antic's first game in charge for the Serbs.

Group-8: The Republic of Ireland began their qualifying campaign under new boss Geovanni Trapattoni with a hard-fought 2-1 win over war-ravaged Georgia at the neutral German city of Mainz. The win was important as the Irish would be looking to make the playoff spot from the group as it also includes World Champions Italy, 2-1 winners at Cyprus courtesy of two goals from Antonio Di Natale, Bulgaria and newcomers Montenegro.

Montenegro marked their entry into competitive world football with a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria at Podgorica.

Group 9: The only five-team group featuring Holland, Norway, Scotland, Iceland and Macedonia, its already catch-up time for all the four teams behind the Dutch. The Dutch were not in action competitively but Scotland made a horrible start to their campaign under George Burley with a disappointing 1-0 loss at the sunny Macedonian capital Skopje. Under oppressive late summer temperatures, the Scots were boiled over by an early Goce Naumoski goal which turned out to be the winner. The Scots certainly missed the chance to take early control of the group with the Dutch not being involved as Norway and Iceland played out an entertaining 2-2 draw. These are the matches that the Scots need to win to have chances of qualifying for South Africa.

The Netherlands were in action in a friendly against Australia but their preparations under new manager Peter Van Maarwiejk went bad as the hosts squandered an early lead to lose 2-1 against the plucky Australians.