Charisteas gives Greece a boost

Angelos Charisteas scored twice to give fading European champions Greece a boost in their listless World Cup Group Two qualifying campaign, the striker's goals helping to earn a first win, 3-1, over Kazakhstan in Piraeus.

The Greeks move on to five points from four games, but unbeaten Ukraine kept up their drive for a first appearance in the World Cup finals with a 3-0 win over Turkey in Istanbul, the Turks' first defeat in the competition.

Ukraine, aided by a brace from Andriy Shevchenko, stretched their lead at the top to five points with 11 points from five matches.

Turkey and Albania, who were not playing, were joined on six points by Denmark, who had a disappointing evening in Georgia where they managed a 2-2 draw.

Group Three leaders Portugal opened a three-point lead over Slovakia after a 5-0 win in Luxembourg, a Pauleta double adding to goals from Luis Boa Morte, Cristiano Ronaldo and Maniche Ribeiro.

Portugal have 13 points from five matches, with Slovakia second on 10. Russia beat Estonia 4-0 to leapfrog above the Estonians into third place with seven points. Latvia also climbed to seven points following a 3-1 win over Liechtenstein.

The Netherlands moved above Romania into top spot of Group One on goal difference after beating Andorra 3-0 in Barcelona as the Romanians were held to a surprise 1-1 draw by Armenia, who picked up their first point of the campaign.

The Czech Republic maintained their challenge with a 2-0 win over Macedonia. The Netherlands and Romania have 10 points, Finland and the Czechs nine.

In Group Seven, leaders Serbia and Montenegro beat Belgium 2-0 in Brussels to take their goal tally to 10-0 and their points total to 10 from four games.

At the same time they seriously damaged Belgium's hopes of a seventh successive World Cup finals appearance, leaving the Belgians with just one point from four games and only forlorn San Marino beneath them.

Lithuania remained in second place, moving up to eight points despite a slender 1-0 win over San Marino. Spain should move up to eight points in their next match, against San Marino.

Finally, Hungary won 2-0 in Malta to take their Group Eight points tally to six from four games but Sweden lead with nine points from four games, followed by Bulgaria (7 from 3), Croatia (7 from 3) and Hungary.