Bulgaria 2 - Italy 2; Armenia 1 - Malta 0

Armenia made a trip to the always tricky national stadium of Ta'Qali to take on Malta.  Armenia's Marcos Pinheiro struck the intersection of the crossbar and the near post and saw his rebound clip the goalkeeper and head back in before Alexander Muscat made an acrobatic scissor-kick clearance to save Malta's blushes.  Armenia dominated possession but found no goals in a scoreless first forty-five.

After the restart, Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg was forced into a diving save but made the play.  Yura Movsisyan made the run and assist to substitute Artur Sarkisov to break the deadlock with twenty minutes left to play that gave Armenia their first lead.  Henrik Mkhitaryan nearly added a second goal late on, but Hogg again made a wonderful diving save.  Hogg's efforts were not enough, however, as Armenia win 1-0.

In the most highly anticipated of all today's UEFA action, Italy traveled to Sofia, a place where they have never won, to face stubborn Bulgaria.  Italy looked to be rectifying this poor record with their early play as they dominated the ball and left the Bulgarians searching for answers. Bulgaria found an answer at the midway point of the half, but Ivan Ivanov's (pictured, white #15) shot was tipped to safety by 2006 Germany-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.  Stanislav Manolev scored the opener from a well-hit ball from distance to give Bulgaria a 1-0 lead after the first thirty minutes.  Italy responded well through Pablo Osvaldo (pictured, blue).  Emanuele Giaccherini headed down across the box and Osvaldo met the ball just outside the left post with his left boot to push the ball into the net for the equalizer.  Osvaldo found himself a second four minutes later when his header was deflected by a Bulgarian defender and redirected itself into the net because the goalkeeper had already committed himself to the original trajectory.  The half ended with Italy leading 2-1.

Ilian Micanski came on as a substitute in the second half and immediately made an impact for Bulgaria.  Micanski got to the endline, from where he slotted backward to an open Georgi Milanov, who crush a shot into the Italian net for his first international goal. Bulgaria really pushed for the victory in the final ten minutes, but Buffon saved efforts by Ivanov and Manolev to preserve a 2-2 draw for Italy.

Goals
Armenia
Artur Sarkisov 70

Bulgaria
Stanislav Manolev 30
Georgi Milanov 66

Italy
Pablo Osvaldo 36, 40

Match Reports:
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/09/08/soccer-armenia-leaves-it-late-but-gets-the-job-done-malta-01-armenia/
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1697329/index.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1697903/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy4Vw5EdqYQ (Armenia v. Malta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPAEotux8Qg (Bulgaria v. Italy)