Yugoslavia ends W. Cup doubts with 7-1 victory

LONDON (Reuters): Barring the most unlikely comeback in international soccer history, Yugoslavia booked its place in the World Cup finals with a 7-1 away win over Hungary in the first leg of their qualifying playoff Wednesday.

With the return leg in Belgrade in 10 days' time now a formality, the Yugoslav players rejoiced at the end, celebrating not only their emphatic victory but what will be the country's first appearance in the World Cup finals since 1990.

Yugoslavia, barred because of war from the 1992 European finals in Sweden and from qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, returned to center stage in the most emphatic way possible.

Already 3-0 up inside the first 10 minutes, it utterly destroyed the once-proud soccer nation of Hungary, which suffered its biggest home defeat since England beat it 8-2 in Budapest 88 years ago.

Branko Brnovic sent Yugoslavia on its way after only two minutes and the goals hardly stopped flowing over the next hour as Miroslav Djukic (6), Dejan Savicevic (10) Predrag Mijatovic (26, 41, 51) and Savo Milosevic (63) all found the net. Bela Illes scored a consolation for Hungary two minutes from time.

It was only the second time Yugoslavia had scored as many as seven goals in an international since 1974 -- and the last occasion was against the lightweights from the Faroe Islands, beaten 7-0 in 1991.

Belgium

In Dublin, Ireland, the host was held by a composed and authoritative Belgium to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their World Cup playoff.

Belgium now heads for the return leg in Brussels on Nov. 15 as favorite to qualify for the finals -- thanks largely to an outstanding individual goal from Luc Nilis who powered the ball past Shay Given from the edge of the box after 30 minutes.

Denis Irwin opened the scoring for Ireland with a 25-meter free-kick after only seven minutes, but Marc Wilmots hit the Irish bar and only some good goalkeeping from Given stopped Belgium adding to its score.

Irwin went close to an equalizer with a free-kick in the dying seconds, but an Irish win would have been rough justice on the visitors.

In Zagreb, Croatia beat an unimpressive Ukraine 2-0 in the first leg of its World Cup playoff.

A header from Everton defender Slaven Bilic after a pass from Robert Prosinecki put Croatia ahead after 11 minutes and Goran Vlaovic added a second in the 49th minute. The home side dominated the match and Ukraine's few scoring chances came as a result of some erratic play by the Croatian defense.

The referee brushed aside two strong appeals for penalties one from each team.

Croatia will be without injured captain Zvonimir Boban of AC Milan and Bilic, suspended after picking up a yellow card on Wednesday, from the second leg.

Teams:

Hungary: Szabolcs Safar, Janos Banfi, Gabor Halmai, Andras Kereszturi, Emil Lorincz, Peter Lipcsei, Tibor Dombi, Vilmos Sebok, Ferenc Orosz, Elek Nyilas, Laszlo Klausz.

Yugoslavia: Ivica Kralj, Zoran Mirkovic, Goran Djorovic, Slavisa Jokanovic, Miroslav Djukic, Branko Brnovic, Vladimir Jugovic, Dejan Savicevic, Predrag Mijatovic, Dragan Stojkovic, Sinisa Mihajlovic.

Ireland: Shay Given, Gary Kelly, Denis Irwin, Ian Harte, Kenny Cunningham, Steve Staunton, Andy Townsend, Ray Houghton, David Connolly, Tony Cascarino, Mark Kennedy.

Belgium: Filip De Wilde, Regis Genaux, Michael Verstraeten, Eric Van Meir, Goran Vidovic, Franky Van Der Elst, Marc Wilmots, Luc Nilis, Michael Goossens, Danny Boffin, Nico Van Kerkckhoven.

Croatia: Drazen Ladic, Robert Jarni, Slaven Bilic, Robert Prosinecki, Davor Suker, Zvonimir Boban (Krunoslav Jurcic, 67), Mario Stanic (Aljosa Asanovic, 59), Danijel Saric, Goran Vlaovic (Igor Cvitanovic, 83), Dario Simic, Goran Juric.

Ukraine: Olexander Shovkovsky, Yuri Dmytrulin, Viktor Skrypnyk, Olexander Koval, Vladyslav Vashchuk, Andriy Gusin, Yuri Maximov (Ivan Hetsko 86), Serhiy Nahornyak (Hennady Zubov 60), Vitaly Kosovsky, Serhiy Atelkin (Dmytro Mykhailenko, 53), Serhiy Rebrov.