Wiltord's fine finish saves France from threat of further failure

France saw their World Cup defence end in disaster this summer and may have thought their campaign to retain the European Championship title would go the same way when they fell behind in their opening qualifying Group One game in Cyprus yesterday. However, they came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory courtesy of a goal seven minutes into the second half from the Arsenal striker Sylvain Wiltord.

Cyprus opened the scoring in the 15th minute when the striker Ioannis Okkas lifted a lob from inside the box over Grégory Coupet, who was deputising in goal for Manchester United's Fabien Barthez. France, who were also without the defenders Vincent Candela and Bixente Lizarazu, and the strikers David Trezeguet and Thierry Henry, equalised seven before the interval through the young striker Djibril Cissé. Shortly after Wiltord had put France ahead with a fine finish after picking the ball up 30 yards from goal, Cissé should have sealed victory but goalkeeper Nikos Panayiotou saved his powerful cross shot.

Nevertheless, the French held on for their first victory in five matches and eased the pressure on their new coach, Jacques Santini.

A header by John Carew three minutes into injury time salvaged a 2-2 draw for Norway in the Group Two match at home to Denmark. The Danes, who were knocked out of the World Cup by England, looked to be heading for victory thanks to two goals from Jan Dahl Tomasson, once a failure at Newcastle United but now with Milan. Liverpool's John Arne Riise beat the Sunderland goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen for the first equaliser and then came Carew's header.

Tomasson, who hit four goals in the first round of the World Cup, made it 1-0 in the 23rd minute when he connected with a cross from Niclas Jensen. Riise hit the post in the 52nd minute but had to wait only two more minutes to equalise with a shot through Sorensen's legs after good work by Tottenham's Steffen Iversen and Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Tomasson restored Denmark's advantage after 71 minutes when he was left unmarked in the penalty area.

In Group Six, Armenia snatched a 2-2 home draw against Ukraine, with a penalty in injury time from Albert Sarkisyan. Ukraine, who are still without the injured Andriy Shevchenko, had gone 2-0 ahead in the first half through goals by Serhiy Serebrennikov and Hennady Zubov. Artur Petrosyan held his nerve in a one-on-one with goalkeeper Vitaly Reva to pull a goal back from an acute angle in the 75th minute and Ukraine were reduced to 10 men with five minutes to go when Anatoly Tymoshchyuk was sent off for a second yellow card offence.