Quickest goal scored

Kazakhstan - Scotland 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 06 (05.29) Yuriy Pertsukh
              2:0 09 (09.11) Yan Vorogovskiy
              3:0 51 (50.22) Baktiyar Zainutdinov

Cyprus - San Marino 5:0

Scorers: 1:0 19-pen (18.25) Pieros Sotiriou
              2:0 23-pen (22.48) Pieros Sotiriou
              3:0 26 (25.40) Ioannis Kousoulos
              4:0 31 (30.54) Georgios Efrem 
              5:0 55 (55.15) Konstantinos Laifis

Slovakia - Hungary 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 42 (41.56) Ondrej Duda
              2:0 84 (83.59)  Albert Rusnak

Northern Ireland - Estonia 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 55 (55.15) Niall McGinn
              2:0 74-pen (74.05) Steven Davies

Croatia - Azerbaijan 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 19 Ramil Sheydaev
              1:1 44 Borna Barisic
              2:1 79 Andrej Kramaric

Israel - Slovenia 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 47 (47.19) Andraz Sporar
              1:1 55 (54.21) Eran Zahavi

Belgium - Russia 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 14 (13.45) Youri Tielemans
              1:1 16 (15.36) Denis Cheryshev
              2:1 45-pen (44.38) Eden Hazard
              3:1 87 (87.14) Eden Hazard

- The first red card of these qualifiers was for Aleksandr Golovin (Russia) who received two yellow at 90 (89.23).

Austria - Poland 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 68 (67.53) Krzysztof Piatek

Netherlands - Belarus 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 01 (50 seconds) Memphis Depay
              2:0 21 (20.27) Georginio Wijnaldum
              3:0 55-pen (54.40) Memphis Depay
              4:0 85 (85.04) Virgil van Dijk

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New record was set in women football

Last Sunday 60.739 spectators have watched Atletico Madrid - Barcelona in the Primera division de la Liga Femenino (Primera division for women). In terms of fans, Wanda Metropolitano stadium have set a European record on any women league. The game from past weekend broke the record of 48.121 spectators when Athletic Bilbao played Atletico Madrid at San Mames this January.

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Three announced draw dates

CONCACAF and UEFA confederations have announced dates of the draw on 3 important competitions taking place at their own continent.
At the second part of this week, the North, Central America and Caribbean region are concluding the overall qualifiers of the Nations league out of which all teams have been fighting to be placed mainly in the top 10 positions. Also, the final table will be significant to determine which teams are going to be at the divided Nations league groups. As from now on, the Nations league will be split into A, B or C groups (exactly like the European model), on 06 March the confederation has set the date: all 41 member nations are going to learn their fate at Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America on 27 March. Matches of all 3 divided groups will begin from this fall, while the final is going to be in March 2020.
Those teams which are placed in the top 10 of the above mentioned Nations league, will participate at the main tournament which is going to start this summer: the Gold Cup where 6 qualified teams already awaits them. When all 16 are known, the draw for this championship which starts in June, is going to be held on 10 April in Los Angeles, United States of America. On this date we are going to find out the full schedule with the 4 groups of the fifteenth edition of Gold Cup.
Switching continents now, and for the last date we have to arrive in Europe. Four days ago the European football organization has revealed that the draw for its own regional competition is set for this fall: 30 of November in Bucharest. The Romanian capital will give the answer which 6 groups are going to be formed for the complicated EURO 2020 event.

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Destroying a really great event

Six regional club champions plus the host: in short this is the line-up for the Club World Cup. However, from now on money comes first instead of good football and all for the reason of why this tournament is (slowly) going to be completely wiped out.
From the beginning of the year the FIFA advisor Zvonimir Boban has announced that from 2021 this competition will be played every four years and with 24 clubs. Last Friday the president just confirmed what was said two months ago: that the Club World Cup is 'only' going to change its format. The expansion of this tournament is very 'original' explained by the adviser in January: an idea is to have 12 clubs from Europe, while the rest will be from other continents. But even if this whole thing is (somehow) Europeanized, the clubs from the old continent (European Club Association) are not satisfied and annunciate a boycott to the event.

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Last eliminatory games from Africa

Apart from CONCACAF region, one other continent is going to have its own official championship this summer: the African Cup of Nations. To get to the finals 23 last duels need to be played (one match is cancelled) in order to know which 24 teams are going to entertain us in Egypt from this June. Some teams are already qualified for the finals, but some needs to sweat good and next weekend play 'the game of their lives'. As always, there is little information about the exact kickoff times, but the schedule have to look like this:

22 March, Friday at 14.00 CET: Malawi - Morocco.
22 March, Friday at 16.00 CET: Nigeria - Seychelles.
22 March, Friday at 18.00 CET: Botswana - Angola.
22 March, Friday at 18.00 CET: Burkina Faso - Mauritania.

22 March, Friday at 18.00 CET: Sudan - Equatorial Guinea.

22 March, Friday at 19.15 CET: Tunisia - Eswatini.

22 March, Friday at 20.45 CET: Algeria - Gambia.

23 March, Saturday at 14.00 CET: Burundi - Gabon.

23 March, Saturday at 15.00 CET: Senegal - Madagascar.

23 March, Saturday at 16.00 CET: Cameroon - Comoros.

23 March, Saturday at 16.30 CET: Niger - Egypt.

23 March, Saturday at 17.30 CET: Guinea-Bissau - Mozambique.

23 March, Saturday at 17.30 CET: Zambia - Namibia.

23 March, Saturday at 18.00 CET: Ivory Coast - Rwanda.

23 March, Saturday at 19.00 CET: Ghana - Kenya.

23 March, Saturday at 20.00 CET: Mali - South Sudan.

24 March, Sunday at 14.00 CET: Democratic Republic of Congo - Liberia.

24 March, Sunday at 14.00 CET: Zimbabwe - Congo.

24 March, Sunday at 15.00 CET: Central African Republic - Guinea.
24 March, Sunday at 16.00 CET: Benin - Togo.
24 March, Sunday at 16.00 CET: Cape Verde - Lesotho.
24 March, Sunday at 16.00 CET: Tanzania - Uganda.
24 March, Sunday at 18.00 CET: Libya - South Africa.

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