Bulgaria 1 - Denmark 1; Italy 3 - Armenia 1; Czech Republic 3 - Malta 1

A rainy day in Plzen was the scene for Malta's visit to face the Czech Republic.  David Limbersky fought hard with his marker in the corner before unleashing a three-quarter spin cross that allowed an onrushing right back Theodor Gebre Selassie to head home for his first international goal and give the Czechs a 1-0 lead ten minutes from halftime.  Roderick Briffa responded with his first goal for Malta four minutes later.  Briffa had his run interrupted by a double team, but the ball fell to his feet and his tried his luck from twenty yards, delivering a strike with the outside of foot that equalized the match.  The score remained 1-1 as the teams went to their locker rooms.

Seven minutes into the second half, Czech forward Petr Jiracek was made to run full speed to the end line in order to make a sliding cross to the six-yard box.  Tomas Pekhart rose over his defender and headed home from point-blank range to restore the Czechs to a one-goal lead.  One quarter hour later, Jiracek played a through ball to Jaroslav Plasil, who pushed the ball back a few yards into the path of Jan Rezek.  Rezek calmly finished to push the lead to two goals.  Malta were awarded a soft penalty in stoppage time, but Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech made a good read on a diving save of captain Michael Mifsud's effort as the final whistle blew.  Czech Republic win 3-1.

Armenia welcomed Italy to Yerevan for their qualifier today.  Andrea Pirlo nearly got Italy off to a fast start, but his well-struck free kick from the top of the half circle was tipped over by diving Armenia goalkeeper Roman Berezovski.  An incredibly harsh handball call against Armenia gave Italy a penalty kick ten minutes in, with Pirlo converting for a 1-0 lead to the visitors.  A clash of heads in the midfield lead to a loose ball in the middle of Italy's half of the field, so an alert Henrikh Mkhitaryan gathered the ball, shook a defender with a nice shimmy, and then finished to the far side net past an oncoming goalkeeper.  The great goal equaled the match at one goal apiece.  The half would end would no further goals.

Sebastian Giovinco nearly gave Italy a lead soon after the restart, but Berezovski stuck a strong paw up to knock his shot over the goal after Giovinco had shaken his defender with a nice move.  The soccer gods repaid Armenia as an undeniable handball in the box went unnoticed by the referee.  Armenia had the better of the play for a good chunk of time, and then nearly cashed in with a goal as Mkhitaryan's cross was struck by Davit Manoyan.  However, Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a diving two-handed save to preserve the tie score.  Twenty minutes into the half, Daniele De Rossi ran full speed into a cross and headed the ball strongly into the underside of the crossbar.  The ball bounced into the goal, and Italy had their lead.  The game became wide open as both teams were racing around for the next goal.  A short De Rossi free kick curled down onto Pablo Osvaldo's head, allowing Osvaldo to score his third goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup and delivering the final blow in a 3-1 win for Italy.

Bulgaria played host to Denmark in their fortress at Sofia.  A mental lapse early allowed Bulgaria to snatch a quick lead.  A deep throw-in was launched to the six-yard box to an unmarked Dimitar Rangelov, who beat the goalkeeper to the ball to nod into the vacated net.  Ivan Bandilovski was sent off the pitch with a straight red in minute 26 for a raised-foot tackle from behind, leaving Bulgaria to cope with ten men for the final hour plus.  With just over five minutes left in the first half, a Michael Krohn-Dehli left-footed cross from the top of the box floated to the back post where a tall figure named Nicklas Bendtner rose up to slam home a point-blank header to equalize for Denmark.  The half would end 1-1.

In the second period, Denmark began to drain Bulgaria's reserves of energy with simple possession football as they walked up the pitch.  However, the urgency in the final third was missing, and it took a burst of attacking from Bulgaria with a quarter hour remaining to spring the half to life.  Denmark looked more focused at that point, and a series of passes within the box led to a layoff to midfielder Christian Eriksen.  Eriksen's shot was pushed aside by Bulgaria goalkeeper Nikolay Mihalov, so the match continued on level terms.  The end of the match produce little offense, so Bulgaria hold on to a 1-1 draw despite having been down a man for over an hour.

Italy 7 pts +4
Bulgaria 5 pts +1
Czech Rep 4 pts +2
Armenia 3 pts -2
Denmark 2 pts 0
Malta 0 pts -5

Goals
Czech Republic
Theodor Gebre Selassie 34
Tomas Pekhart 52
Jan Rezek 67

Malta
Roderick Briffa 38

Italy
Andrea Pirlo 11 PK
Daniele De Rossi 64
Pablo Osvaldo 82

Armenia
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 28

Bulgaria
Dimitar Rangelov 7

Denmark
Nicklas Bendtner 40

Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1783836/index.html
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1188866/prandelli-joy-at-italy-character-after-armenia-scalp?cc=5901
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1783962/index.html
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/10/13/soccer-italy-defeats-spirited-armenia-3-1-in-yerevan-2/
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1784125/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKnxB28-wHE (Czech Republic v. Malta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiL3HebonG4 (Italy v. Armenia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08gevyByQBY (Bulgaria v. Denmark)