After surviving a first half of almost total French domination, lone striker James McFadden scored a glorious 30-yard drive in the 63rd minute to give Scotland all three points.

Alex McLeish's side are top of Group B having taken six points from Les Bleus and with two of their remaining three games at Hampden Park.

Italy moved into second place after Antonio Di Natale's double earned the world champions a vital 2-1 win in Ukraine.

Andriy Shevchenko was arguably the game's outstanding player, leading the home side forward and scoring an equaliser in the 71st minute, but for all his enterprise, his goal was not enough to earn a point which Ukraine certainly merited.

Lithuania picked up three morale-boosting points in what looks a forlorn quest to qualify with a hard-fought 2-1 win over a battling Faroe Islands.

Edgaras Jankauskas broke the deadlock for the home side from close range after only seven minutes, before Tomas Danilevicius doubled their advantage with another tap-in just after the half-time interval.

And they managed to hang on to all three points despite Rogvi Jacobsen's well-taken consolation deep into injury time.

Croatia remain in control at the top of Group E following a comprehensive 6-0 away victory over Andorra.

Darijo Srna, Mladen Petric (two), Niko Kranjcar, Eduardo da Silva and Ivan Rakitic did the damage for a rampant Croatian outfit.

The hosts' misery was completed 14 minutes from time when Genis Garcia was dismissed.

England climbed to second after an impressive 3-0 triumph over Russia at Wembley.

Michael Owen struck a goal in each half and Rio Ferdinand sealed matters late on to keep Steve McClaren's side just two points behind the pool leaders.

FYR Macedonia could only manage a 1-1 draw against Estonia despite dominating for large periods in Skopje.

After struggling against an early Estonian onslaught, which saw the away side take the lead through an early Raio Piiroja strike, Macedonia levelled things up with Goran Maznov heading home from a corner.

An early goal from Xavi and a late tap-in from Fernando Torres earned Spain a 2-0 win over Latvia and put Luis Aragones' team level on points with Sweden at the top of Group F.

The opener came in the 13th minute when Joaquin beat his full-back on the right-hand side of the penalty area and produced a low pass across the face of goal from where an unmarked Xavi sidefooted home from four yards.

Torres sealed matters five minutes from time, knocking in a rebound after Andris Vanins had saved Miguel Angulo's shot.

Denmark kept alive their hopes of reaching Euro 2008 with a 4-0 home victory over minnows Liechtenstein.

Morten Nordstrand (two), Martin Laursen and Jon Dahl Tomasson were the men on target, all in the first half.

Northern Ireland's hopes were dented after a second successive defeat - this time 2-1 in Iceland.

Just like Latvia at the weekend they were undone by an own goal.

It was Keith Gillespie's turn to rue his bad luck a minute from time with the touch which sealed victory for Iceland. Chris Baird had been the fall guy in Latvia.

David Healy's penalty had seen Northern Ireland equalise after Armann Bjornsson's opener.

In Group G, Holland left it extremely late to beat 10-man Albania 1-0.

The Dutch dominated virtually the whole match, but had to wait until Ruud van Nistelrooy's strike in the last minute to seal the win and move level on points with pool leaders Romania.

Lorik Cana was dismissed for the hosts just three minutes before Van Nistelrooy's goal.

Dimitar Berbatov scored twice as Bulgaria kept their qualification bid on track with a 3-0 home win over Luxembourg.

The Tottenham striker notched twice in the space of a minute during the first half as Bulgaria made their dominance pay.

Manchester City midfielder Martin Petrov got the third from the penalty spot against a Luxembourg side that created little in front of goal.

Slovenia had to fight off a brave second-half performance from 10-man Belarus to secure a 1-0 win.

An early penalty from Klemen Lavric was enough to secure the points as Belarus saw Artem Radkov sent off for two bookings inside two second-half minutes.

In Group A, Poland moved a step closer to Euro 2008 after a goalless draw against a Finland side that could still join them in Switzerland and Austria.

A sell-out crowd at the Olympiastadion roared on the hosts, but they could not find a way past Poland keeper Artur Boruc.

The Finns' Jussi Jaaskelainen was also a busy man in a pulsating game in which each side hit the woodwork.

The stalemate was a good result for Portugal, but they failed to fully capitalise when they were later held to a 1-1 draw at home to Serbia.

Simao Sabrosa's precise free-kick in the 11th minute looked to have earned the Portuguese all three points, but Serbia hit back through Branislav Ivanovic two minutes from time.

Belgium's slim hopes of qualification are all but dead after they could only secure a 2-2 draw with Kazakhstan.

They had led 2-0 thanks to goals from Karel Geraerts and Kevin Mirallas but a Dmitry Byakov strike and a Samat Smakov penalty earned the home side a point.

In Group C, two goals in four second-half minutes set Turkey on their way to a 3-0 win over 10-man Hungary to greatly improve their hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.

After Zoltan Gera had been dismissed, Turkey made their man advantage count and took a 2-0 lead through Gokhan Unal and Mehmet Aurelio before Halil Altintop wrapped up the points late on.

Greece took another step towards getting the chance to defend their European title in Switzerland and Austria when they claimed a 2-2 away draw against in-form Norway.

Twice the pool leaders took the lead in the Norwegian capital through Sotirios Kyrgiakos but Norway came back to equalise on each occasion, first through John Carew and then with a magnificent strike from John Arne Riise.

Bosnia-Herzegovina's hopes of qualifying suffered a major setback when they were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at home by Moldova.

Igor Bugaev scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half.

While Germany look to have Group D wrapped up, the runaway leaders were not in qualifying action in midweek and Czech Republic consolidated second spot with Marek Jankulovski's first-half strike enough to earn a 1-0 win which leaves the Republic of Ireland's hopes looking doomed.

Reeling from the sending-off of substitute Stephen Hunt on the hour for a lunge on Jan Polak, Steve Staunton's men battled bravely in search of an equaliser but were ultimately fortunate to go down by such a narrow margin.

A Craig Bellamy-inspired Wales side stormed to a 5-2 victory in Slovakia - scoring five goals in an away match for the first time in 11 years.

Bellamy's pace destroyed a pedestrian Slovakia defence and helped erase the memory of a 5-1 mauling handed out by the Slovakians in Cardiff.

It also boosted morale following the depressing home defeat by group leaders Germany at the weekend.

Cyprus coasted to an easy 3-0 win over a San Marino side still without a point in what has been a dismal qualifying campaign for them.

Konstantinos Makridis opened the scoring for the hosts in the first quarter of an hour. Two goals from Efstathios Aloneftis then sealed the win for the home side.