Unruly crowd scenes, with fans throwing firecrackers and flares on to the pitch, forced the referee to take the players off the field in Milan before Italy and Croatia were finally able to complete their Euro 2016 qualifier and fight out a 1-1 draw, last night.

The match was twice interrupted, with riot police having to quell trouble in the stands in the second half while the players were taken off the field for 10 minutes.

It was a blunder by Gianluigi Buffon which allowed Croatia to come away with a draw after Antonio Candreva had fired Italy ahead in the 11th minute.

Ivan Perisic levelled four minutes later with a shot which went straight under Buffon’s body, with the veteran far too slow to react.

Croatia fans celebrated by throwing flares on the field, causing play to be interrupted for around three minutes, a precursor to the more serious problems in the second half.

Both teams have 10 points from four games after dropping their first points in Group H.

UEFA will no doubt act after receiving official reports and hand out punishments in due course.

In Group B, Wales survived a late onslaught to force a goalless draw against Belgium with their key man Gareth Bale making a game-saving intervention in the dying seconds.

The Real Madrid star, who started his career as a left-back, was back in his old position with seconds remaining to clear a header off the line from substitute Christian Benteke.

But a winner for Belgium then would have been a huge injustice as Wales defended heroically against the team ranked fourth in the world.

The Czech Republic fought back to beat Iceland 2-1 in their Group A qualifier with a Pavel Kaderabek header and an own goal giving the home side four wins out of four and top spot in the standings.

The result left the Czechs top with 12 points followed by Iceland on nine and the Netherlands on six.

The Dutch recorded a vital 6-0 home thrashing of Latvia to ease the pressure on coach Guus Hiddink.

Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar both scored twice and were accompanied on the scoresheet by Robin van Persie and Jeffrey Bruma.

It was a 17th consecutive away defeat for Latvia, who have not won a game on foreign soil since September 2011, when they beat Georgia 1-0.

Group A

Netherlands 6
Van Persie 6; Robben 35, 82; Huntelaar 42, 89; Bruma 78;
Latvia 0

Czech Rep. 2
Kaderabek 45; Boedvarsson 61og;
Iceland 1
Sigurdsson 9;

Turkey 3
Yilmaz 26p, 29; Aziz 83;
Kazakhstan 1
Smakov 87 pen;

Group B

Belgium 0
Wales 0

Cyprus 5
Merkis 9; Efrem 31, 42, 60; Christofi 87p;
Andorra0

Israel 3
Vermouth 36; Damari 45; Zahavi 70;
Bosnia 0

Red card: Sunjic (B) 48.

Group H

Azerbaijan 0
Norway 1
Nordtveit 25;

Bulgaria 1
Galabinov 6;
Malta 1
Failla 49 pen;

Missed penalty: Popov (B) 76.

Italy 1
Candreva 11;
Croatia 1
Perisic 15;