England were given a precious lifeline by Israel in the chase for the Euro 2008 finals places. Russia were shot down cruelly 2-1 at Israel with the winning goal scored at the 90^th minute. In the other match in the group Croatia lost 2-0 at home to Macedonia leaving England to just secure a draw at home to Croatia on Wednesday to qualify for the finals.Needing a victory to put qualification in their own hands Russia struggled throughout  the first half and Israel looked good for their 1-0 lead at the half time. However, Russia turned out a different team in the second half and got back with a well taken goal by Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and for a while a winner for the visitors seemed inevitable. It looked to have come in added time when Dmitri Sychev broke through, but his shot clipped the outside of a post. Moments later, Omer Golan made no mistake at the other end and Israel held on for a 2-1 win to put England in pole position for qualifying. In the other match Croatia absurdly lose at home 2-0 to Macedonia but the result at Tel Aviv ensures that they qualify from the group irrespective of the consequence of their match against England at Wembley on Wednesday

In the other big match Scotland fought bravely against Italy at home but were cruelly done in by a late Cristian Panucchi winner for Italy in the dying moments of the game. Italy took an early lead courtesy some slack defence by the Scottish defenders.Gianluca Zambrotaa deceived the defence with a long throw in and Bayern Munich front man Luca Toni was there to do the rest at the far post in the opening minutes. However, buoyed by a capacity Hampden Park Scotland stuck back in the 62nd minute with a Barry Ferguson equalizer but all the good work was to be to undone in the dying moments of the game when a Pirlo freekick was headed in by Panucchi to break 60,000 Scottish hearts at Hampden Park. This result implies that both France and Italy qualify out of the group at the expense of Scotland.