International round-up of the important games

There were some grudge matches in international football this week but I really have't had time much to put my thoughts down.  Of course, the highlight has to be the battle of the minnows - Lichtenstein versus San Marino.  The former are actually moving up in the world, having recently beaten Moldova away (a first competitive away win in almost 20 years) while San Marino remains resolutely at the bottom of the world (rankings at least).  So, technically, it was a mismatch and lived up to that with a prosaic win for the Alpine principality over (allegedly) Earth's oldest republic.  Luxembourg had their hearts broken with their opponents Turkey scoring in the 87th minute to take the game 2-1.  Panama took on their upwardly mobile World Cup Quarter-finals (and it could have been so much more) neighbours Cost Rica and promptly lost.  Belarus hosted Gabon in one of this planet's more unlikely pairings (not unlike the Chinese-Albanian axis of the 1960s) - one of those games which seemed to have been arranged for the connivance of match fixers.  The pitch action was nothing toe write home about (once Mink's security services had steamed open then resealed the envelopes), the hosts winning 1-0.  Maybe the fixture was more an opportunity for dignitaries on both sides to swap notes on democracy suppression.  Oh and England and Italy played out some 90 minutes together.