France and Italy have slipped from their perches since contesting the 2006 World Cup final and both stumbled into their qualifying campaigns for the 2010 tournament at the weekend. France succumbed 3-1 to Austria in Vienna and Italy diced with defeat before securing their winning goal through Antonio Di Natale in stoppage time away to Cyprus.

The two countries only just scraped past Scotland to qualify for this summer’s European Championship, where they struggled, each enduring a hammering by Holland. France’s decline appears the greater and they were undone by the free kicks and finishing of Andreas Ivanschitz, who teed up Marc Janko and René Aufhauser to score for Austria at set-pieces before adding the third goal from the penalty spot.

Di Natale gave Italy an early lead but Cyprus levelled through Stathis Aloneftis and had several chances to go ahead as the game progressed. Italy’s late winning goal was a setback for Ireland, their group rivals, as was the stoppage-time equaliser by Bulgaria – arguably Ireland’s second-strongest group opponents – in a 2-2 draw away to Montenegro. Blagoi Georgiev’s goal secured the point after the home side had seemed on course to mark their first competitive match since breaking from Serbia with a victory.

England were also given reason to curse a late goal when Andriy Shevchenko struck a stoppage-time penalty to earn Ukraine a 1-0 win at home to Belarus, but Croatia, the other main group rivals for Fabio Capello’s side – who they face on Wednesday – endured no such anxiety as they cruised home 3-0 against Kazakhstan in Zagreb, with goals from Niko Kovac, Luka Modric and Mladen Petric.

Spain extended their unbeaten run to 24 games but only with a 1-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Murcia. David Villa missed a first-half penalty for the European champions, who had to do without the injured Fernando Torres, but the Valencia striker scored with a sharp finish after the interval to give Vicente Del Bosque victory in his first competitive match as coach.

In contrast, Germany and Portugal had little trouble finding the net as they brushed aside limited opposition. Lukas Podolski scored the first two goals in Germany’s 6-0 victory away to Liechtenstein and Carlos Queiroz, the former Manchester United assistant manager, enjoyed a 4-0 success away to Malta in his first competitive game as Portugal coach, the last goal coming from Nani, the United winger.

Carlos Tévez, another United player, had a less satisfying weekend with Argentina as he received his second red card in three internationals during the 1-1 home draw against Paraguay. The forward, dismissed for a kick at an opponent against Colombia in November last year, was sent off on Saturday for two poor tackles in the first half-hour. The result leaves his country with plenty of work to do to ensure their passage to South Africa in 2010.

The United States beat Cuba in Havana on their first visit to the Caribbean island for 61 years, but there were few signs of the political tensions between the countries. In an echo of the friendliness that marked the United States-Iran match at the 1998 World Cup, when opponents exchanged gifts and took part in a joint photograph, the visiting team returned to the pitch from the dressing-room after the game to applaud the Cuban fans. Bob Bradley, the United States coach, said that the gesture was spontaneous. “We’ve been treated very well and people have been very friendly.” he said.

While Manchester City prepare themselves for a takeover, there was a reminder that footballing success cannot be bought as easily for countries as for clubs. The United Arab Emirates were beaten 2-1 by North Korea in Abu Dhabi, whose ruling family plans to take control of City.