Bubbling Balaban revives Croatia's campaign

The consequences of the last-minute goal that Scotland conceded in their 2-2 draw against Belgium at Hampden Park yesterday began to unfold within hours as Croatia finally put their game together to thrash Latvia 4-1 in Osijek.

The consequences of the last-minute goal that Scotland conceded in their 2-2 draw against Belgium at Hampden Park yesterday began to unfold within hours as Croatia finally put their game together to thrash Latvia 4-1 in Osijek.

Bosko Balaban, the most exciting of the new wave of players coming into the Croatia team, secured his nation's first victory of their World Cup Group Six campaign with a hat-trick. After the substitute Andrej Stolcers had pulled a goal back on the hour, Davor Vugrinec wrapped up Croatia's victory at the end.

Scotland, who drew in Zagreb early in the campaign, may find the return match in Glasgow in September decisive in settling who progresses, at least to a qualifying play-off.

Wales' disappointing 2-2 draw in Armenia became even more frustrating when Ukraine and Belarus drew 0-0 in Kiev later yesterday, and Norway were beaten 3-2 at home by Poland, whose naturalised striker, the Nigerian-born Emmanuel Olisadebe, scored twice. Olisadebe, who plays in Greece for Panathinaikos, put Poland 2-0 ahead in the first half an hour, but after goals from John Carew and Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer they needed a clincher from the substitute, Bartosz Karwan, 10 minutes from time to give them three points and a three-point advantage at the top of group five.

That defeat left the Norwegians at the bottom of the group but, with only Poland playing consistently well and looking the likely group winners, a play-off place is still open to any of the other teams.

Ukraine created a number of opportunities for their vaunted strike partnership of Milan's Andrei Shevchenko and Tottenham's Sergei Rebrov but in general they lacked the imagination to exploit their midfield domination to break the deadlock. The best chances fell to Shevchenko, who had one last attempt in the frenetic closing minutes, but his close-range effort was cleared off the line.

But for the regular qualifiers there were no such problems, even though Germany did have a narrow squeak against Albania again. Italy beat Romania 2-0 in Bucharest in Group Eight and Holland stirred themselves to brush aside the amateurs from Andorra 5-0 in a Group Two match played at the Mini Estadi in Barcelona.

Two opportunist goals from Filippo Inzaghi gave Italy a straightforward victory that left Romania's hopes of qualifying in tatters. Inzaghi's two strikes, the first a 28th-minute deflection off Daniel Prodan and the second a short-range header four minutes later, lifted Italy five points clear at the top of Group Eight.

Pierre van Hooijdonk scored twice for Holland within minutes of coming on as a substitute to stir the Dutch, who had started to idle after taking a 2-0 lead. The Dutch, whose second goal was scored by Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, go to Portugal on Wednesday.

* European Union leaders finally signed the compromise deal on a new football transfer system yesterday. The leaders, attending a two-day EU summit in Stockholm, signed the accord with Fifa's Sepp Blatter and Uefa's Lennart Johansson. The European players' union, Fifpro, is unhappy with the deal, which restricts a player's right to break a contract in its early stages, and has threatened to test the new rules in court.