Spain 4 - Belarus 0; Georgia 1 - Finland 1

Helsinki was the site for the match between hosts Finland and Georgia.  The first half was rather subdued as neither team made serious inroads toward the other's goal.  The half ended without goals.

The opening quarter hour after the restart contained all the action of the match.  Georgia took a surprising lead when Guram Kashia headed a ball in at the near post off a corner kick.  Finland went down to ten men for the final half hour just two minutes after the Georgia goal when Alexei Eremenko took a second yellow card in minute 59.  Eremenko jumped for a cross and then tried to bat it into the goal with two hands, earning his marching orders in the process.  Finland nevertheless found an equalizer four minutes after the sending off.  Kasper Hamalainen drove by his defender on the left flank and then slotted millimeters around an oncoming goalkeeper to equalize the match.

Spain continued their road journey to begin their 2014 FIFA World Cup with a sojourn to Minsk to face Belarus.  After just five minutes, Spain had already blown two chances at goal.  The first chance was kneed onto the crossbar by a Belarus defender, but the second was golden.  Xavi had lofted a ball into the box to the feet of David Silva, who had beaten an offside trap and had acres of space.  Silva somehow missed the target completely with only the goalkeeper to beat.  Left back Jordi Alba made up for Spain's poor early finishing when he beat an offside trap by being a yard offside (not a typo) and then calmly dribbled around the goalkeeper before finishing into an open net.  Belarus did not take the hint that their high line was a vulnerability against a slick-passing side, so Spain made this painfully apparently when Silva curled a through ball into space for Pedro Rodriguez, who then dribbled toward the goalkeeper and neatly chipped him for the second La Roja goal.

In the second period, Rodriguez continued to punish the Belarusian goal.  With twenty minutes and change left to play, Rodriguez ran up the middle of the pitch before chipping two trailing defenders and the goalkeeper into the far side netting for his second chipped goal of the night.  Three minutes later, Cesc Fabregas stole a ball and then slotted into open space for an onrushing Rodriguez, who then chipped the goalkeeper for the third time!  Rodriguez chipped the ball about one half-meter in the air while jumping over the goalkeeper and then half-volleyed the resulting rebound into the vacated net.  David Villa nearly made it five for Spain, but his effort smashed the crossbar, and the rebound attempt was missed by Rodriguez.  Spain win 4-0 before a Rodriguez hat trick of chipped goals.

Spain 6 pts +5
France 6 pts +3
Georgia 4 pts 0
Finland 1 pts -1
Belarus 0 pts -7

Goals
Georgia
Guram Kashia 56

Finland
Kasper Hamalainen 63

Spain
Jordi Alba 12
Pedro Rodriguez 21, 69, 72

Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1783810/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/12/belarus-spain-world-cup-qualifier?newsfeed=true
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1784133/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_FJPDm5bnQ (Georgia v. Finland)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdZ_alR9Yvo (Spain v. Belarus)