Greece 2 - Latvia 1; Slovakia 1 - Lithuania 1; Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 - Liechtenstein 1

Bosnia and Herzegovina started their campaign with a real chance of making it to their first ever FIFA World Cup finals after having been drawn into a soft Group G with Slovakia and Greece.  Their first test was a simple road qualifier in Vaduz to face Liechtenstein.  Liechtenstein held out for twenty-five minutes, but then the floodgates opened.  Zvjezdan Misimovic hit a first half brace as part of a 4-0 Bosnia partial victory.

In the second period, Edin Dzeko scored a hat trick and Vedad Ibisevic picked up his third goal to earn his own hat trick.  When the scoreline was 5-0, Mathias Christen pulled one back for the hosts.  In the end, the match ends as an easy 8-1 Bosnian win.

Slovakia, Round of 16 participants at South Africa 2010, began their long journey back to the big stage with a trip to Vilnius to face Lithuania.  Lithuania grabbed the lead before twenty minutes had elapsed, but a costly turnover saw Slovakia equalize.  Marek Sapara stripped his man at the half circle, dribbled up field and passed off to a teammate.  His teammate lost the ball, but Sapara had continued his run and smoked the rebound home from outside the box to make it 1-1, which would be the halftime score.

Slovakia's Martin Skrtel headed over the go-ahead goal but made amends with a crucial block on the defensive end.  In minute 56, Viktor Pecovsky was ejected for a straight red, leaving Slovakia a man down.  Lithuania were never able to capitalize.  In fact, Tadas Labukas had a short day for Lithuania.  He was subbed on with fifteen minutes to go but had received his second yellow by the time the match had ended, though Lithuania only had to ten-on-ten a very short time in stoppage time.

Riga was the site as Greece made the trip to the Baltic Sea to play hosts Latvia.  Greece had the joy of being the better side throughout the opening stages of the match.  Two headers inside the box failed to threaten the Latvia goal, but a Theofanis Gekas side-foot volley struck the post flush with ten minutes remaining in the period.  Latvia drew a penalty five minutes later and converted for a 1-0 halftime lead against the run of play.

Greece still looked the stronger side in the second half.  Indeed, the Greeks must have felt snake-bitten not to have a goal after creating so many chances.  Miros Spiropoulos struck a ball from twenty-six yards with a left-footed swerving blast to equalize.  After all their botched chances, Greece broke through for a second on a turnover deep in Latvia's area that was one-timed into Gekas's path for a calm finish and a 2-1 lead.  After so much creating nothing out of something, Greece had created something out of nothing.  However, they proceeded to finish the match creating more nothing out of another solid set of chances.  Oskars Klava made a sliding block in stoppage time to deny the best of these chances, but it was no matter.  Greece win 2-1.

Goals
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Zvjezdan Misimovic 26,31
Vedad Ibisevic 34, 40, 83
Edin Dzeko 46, 64, 80

Liechtenstein
Mathias Christen 61

Lithuania
Marius Zaliukas 18

Slovakia
Marek Sapara 41

Greece
Miros Spiropoulos 57
Theofanis Gekas 69

Latvia
Aleksandrs Cauna 42 PK

Match Reports:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-rt-uk-soccer-world-liechtensteinbre88617q-20120907,0,3070868.story
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1697348/
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1697290/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnhRuH5vSRI (Bosnia v. Liechtenstein)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElIA-_twfME (Greece v. Latvia)