Bulgaria 1 - Armenia 0; Italy 2 - Malta 0

Sofia hosted Bulgaria for the second time in five days.  Bulgaria this time faced Armenia with three points on their minds.  Ivelin Popov created the first goal for Bulgaria with two minutes left before the half when he executed a stepover and then threaded a pass across the box with the outside of his foot to give Stanislav Manolev an easy and emphatic finish.  Bulgaria led 1-0 after the opening period.

The second period with forever be known for a mass fight in minute 73.  Bulgaria defender Veselin Minev was boxing out a ball as his keeper was sliding to get it.  Armenia attacker Henrikh Mhitaryan shoved Minev down over his goalkeeper, leading to a big row.  Armenia substitute Marcos Pinheiro was expelled with a red card, and Bulgaria lost Svetoslav Dyakov to a second yellow card.  Four minutes later, Armenia lost Gevorg Ghazaryan to his second yellow, so the end of the match was played with only nineteen players on the pitch: ten Bulgarians and nine Armenians.  With the numerical disadvantage, Armenia mustered no attack, so Bulgaria win comfortably 1-0.

Italy were looking to improve on an opening fixture draw as they welcomed Malta to Modena.  In the fifth minute, a long distance Claudio Marchisio pass from his own half of the field found a bounding Mattia Destro, who having gotten behind the Maltese backline was able to toe poke home for a 1-0 lead to the hosts.  Alessandro Diamanti had two of his efforts saved by Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg in the first half, including the first off a free kick.  Italy led at the break 1-0.

Roderick Briffa proved to be a thorn in the side of the Italian defense as the striker kept up a hearty search for the equalizer.  He hit a couple of rifled shots toward Italy's net, but none completed its journey netward, one because Antonio Nocerino provided a block.  In stoppage time, Italy doubled their lead when Andrea Pirlo's (pitured, blue #21) corner was nodded off the goalkeeper and the man stationed at the near post on its way in by Federico Peluso.  Italy win 2-0.

Italy 4 pts +2
Bulgaria 4 pts +1
Armenia 3 pts 0
Czech Rep 1 pts 0
Denmark 1 pts 0
Malta 0 pts -3

Goals
Bulgaria
Stanislav Manolev 43

Italy
Mattia Destro 5
Federico Peluso 90+2

Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1699593/index.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/italy-2-0-malta-azzurri-204200567--sow.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1699870/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohuflftU_Q (Bulgaria v. Armenia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m4m5rDTR7U (Italy v. Malta)