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Although it’s just the second game for most teams, the groups are starting to slowly show a trend in Euro 2012 qualifying and while some teams such as England, Holland, and Italy have gotten off to quick starts, others, most notably Portugal, are struggling.

France got two late goals to bounce back to their 1-0 loss at home to Belarus for a 2-0 win in Bosnia on Sept. 7. Karim Benzema put them ahead in the 72nd minute and winger Florent Malouda made it 2-0 in the 78th minute.

Wayne Rooney scored his first goal for England in about a year as England beat Switzerland 3-1 on the road to go to the top of Group G. Switzerland defender Stephan Lichtsteiner was sent off with two yellow cards midway through the second half and Adam Johnson made it 2-0. Xherdan Shaqiri got one back to make it 2-1 and then Darren Bent sealed the win in the 88th minute.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored two more goals for Holland as they beat Finland 2-1 at home in Rotterdam. Huntelaar scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over San Marino in their first game.  All of the scoring was over after the 18th minute. Mikael Forssell scored for the Finns.

Stephen McManus scored for Scotland in the 97th minute at home as they came back from a 1-0 deficit to beat Liechtenstein 2-1 on the last play of the game.

Portugal is struggling after drawing 4-4 at home to Cyprus they lost their second start 1-0 in Norway. Erik Huseklepp scored in the 21st-minute and Portugal is now fourth place in their group.

Germany won its second straight game with a 6-1 hammering over Azerbaijan at home in Cologne. Heiko Westermann, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, and Holger Badstuber scored.

Italy also won its second straight with a 5-0 win at home over the Faroe Islands. Gilardino, Daniele De Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Quagliarella, and Andrea Pirlo scored.

Miroslav Stoch scored for Slovakia as they upset Russia in Moscow. Slovakian keeper Jan Mucha was man of the match.

Turkey also are two for two as they beat 10-man Belgium 3-2 in a thriller in Istanbul. Belgium had Vincent Kompany sent off just after 60 minutes. Turkey scored the winner in the last 15 minutes.

In other qualifiers on Sept 7 we saw Austria beat Kazakhstan 2-0, Macedonia drew 2 – 2 with Armenia, Ireland beat Andorra 3 – 1, Serbia drew 1 – 1 with Slovenia, Belarus drew 0 – 0 with Romania, Albania beat Luxembourg 1-0, Sweden thumped San Marino 6-0, Hungary edged Moldova 2- 1, Georgia drew 0 – 0 with Israel, Malta lost 2-0 at home to Latvia, Croatia drew 0 – 0 with Greece, Bulgaria lost 1-0 at home to Montenegro, Denmark beat Iceland 1 – 0, and Czech Republic lost 1-0 at home to Lithuania.