Pedro strike puts Spain on top of Group I

Despite the home side probing late on, Paul Pogba made France’s task even harder by receiving two bookings in a minute.

The netherlands maintained their perfect record in qualifying as two goals from Robin van Persie helped them earn a convincing 4-0 win over Group D rivals Romania at the Amsterdam ArenA.

Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring in the 11th minute, while after the break Van Persie struck twice, the second a penalty, and Jeremain Lens added a fourth in the last minute, as the Dutch extended their lead at the top to seven points.

Daniel Bode scored as Hungary earned a valuable Group D point in Istanbul against Turkey.

Burak Yilmaz had given Turkey the lead, but Bode ensured honours were shared.

Germany crushed Kazakhstan 4-1 to open up an eight-point lead at the top of Group C above Sweden, Austria and the Republic of Ireland, all of whom have games in hand.

Marco Reus was on target twice with Mario Gotze and Ilkay Gundogan also scoring for Joachim Low’s men.

Denmark and Bulgaria shared the points in a Group B qualifier which did little to help either side’s chances of reaching Brazil next summer.

Stanislav Manolev gave the visitors the lead early in the second half but a Daniel Agger penalty secured a draw for Morten Olsen’s men.

Goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Khacheridi earned Ukraine a win against Moldova.

Alexandr Suvorov netted a consolation for the visitors in the Group H qualifier.

Goals from Bruno Alves and Hugo Almeida helped stuttering Portugal to a much-needed qualifying victory over 10-man Azerbaijan in Baku.

Estonia won the battle of the minnows at the foot of Group D with a routine victory at home to Andorra.

Goals either side of half-time from Henri Anier and Joel Lindpere earned the hosts their second win in the pool.

Matej Vydra kept the Czech Republic in the hunt for qualification from Group B with a well-taken brace to down Armenia in Yerevan.

Daniel Kolar then scored to rubberstamp the win.