Austria surprise France

Austria started their qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup in style with a shock 3-1 victory over France in Group Seven last night.

Forward Marc Janko deflected a long-range free kick by captain Andreas Ivanschitz to open the scoring on eight minutes and midfielder Rene Aufhauser deflected another set piece by Ivanschitz to double the advantage shortly before the break.

France winger Sidney Govou reduced the arrears just after the hour, collecting a Patrice Evra cross and turning around to score from six metres, but France could not escape their first defeat by Austria in 38 years.

Ivanschitz sealed Austria's first win over France since a 1-0 victory in 1970 from a penalty on 72 minutes after Janko had been brought down in the box by defender Philippe Mexes.

"Set pieces, that's all they had," said France striker and captain Thierry Henry. "We were coming back but then we allowed them to increase their lead, which is bad," he added, blaming Mexes for offering Austria a penalty.

France coach Raymond Domenech, who managed to keep his job despite the Euro 2008 flop, can now expect another wave of criticism from the media.

"It's never nice to lose," he said. "I have my feelings about what happened but I need to watch the game on video to confirm my impressions," he added.

Lukas Podolski struck twice to set Germany on the way to a 6-0 win away to Liechtenstein.

Podolski combined well with Piotr Trochowski to score either side of half-time in the Group Four clash and take his tally for Germany to 30 goals in 56 matches.

Two goals in the space of a minute from Simon Rolfes and Bastian Schweinsteiger made certain for Germany, before Thomas Hitzlsperger struck with a deflected free-kick and Heiko Westermann nodded in four minutes from time.

Germany, runners-up at Euro 2008, next face Finland in Helsinki on Wednesday, while Liechtenstein are away to Azerbaijan.

In Group Two, striker Theofanis Gekas scored a goal and won a penalty for Greece in a comfortable 3-0 victory over Luxembourg.

The visitors rounded off the win with a Charisteas penalty in the 77th minute after Vassilis Torosidis had opened the scoring in the 36th minute and Gekas had made it 2-0 at the end of the first half.

An injury-time goal by substitute Blagoy Georgiev gave 10-man Bulgaria a 2-2 draw against Montenegro.

Montenegro looked to have secured a win in their competitive debut nine minutes from time when Stevan Jovetic converted a penalty to put them 2-1 ahead, moments after Bulgaria's Stanislav Angelov had received a red card.

However, Slavia Sofia midfielder Georgiev stole a precious point for Bulgaria with a magnificent free-kick in the dying seconds.

The visitors took the lead in the 11th minute with their first meaningful attack of the match when Stilian Petrov raced on to a precise pass from Velizar Dimitrov to unleash a shot from close range.

New Manchester United signing Dimitar Berbatov missed a gilt-edged opportunity to double Bulgaria's lead midway through the first half when he ran through into a space but he shot straight at goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic from inside the penalty area.

Montenegro captain Mirko Vucinic hit the bar from a corner four minutes from half-time and levelled the score in the 62nd minute with a free-kick.

In South America: Argentina vs Paraguay 1-1.