LONDON: Racism and politics overshadowed results in Euro 2020 qualifying on Monday as England’s players were subjected to a barrage of racist abuse in Bulgaria and Turkey celebrated an equaliser against France by lining up to give a military salute.

The game in Bulgaria was halted twice because of fans directing monkey chants at England players, but the visitors played on despite the abuse and won 6-0 to move within one point on qualifying for next year’s tournament.

In Paris, Kaan Ayhan’s late equaliser for Turkey canceled out substitute Olivier Giroud’s 76th-minute header to earn the visitors a 1-1 draw. After the goal, Turkey goalkeeper Mert Gnok joined captain Burak Yilmaz and several other outfield players in giving a military salute toward the crowd in apparent support of the Turkish-backed forces involved in the country’s invasion of Kurdish-held regions in northern Syria. UEFA, which does not allow political gestures during games, had previously said it would investigate a similar salute performed by Turkey players in their 1-0 win over Albania on Friday.

Away from those controversies, Ukraine booked their place in next year’s tournament with a 2-1 win over Portugal in Kiev, despite Cristiano Ronaldo scoring his 700th career goal.

Group ‘A’ leaders England still have to wait for their place at the Euros despite hammering hapless Bulgaria, but the focus of attention was again on the stands as the home fans caused mayhem with racist chanting.

It was another England match blighted by racism from opposition fans after England’s black players were targeted with monkey chants during their 5-1 win at Montenegro in March.

The level of abuse from a section of the Bulgarian support led the English Football Association to demand an investigation from UEFA, asking European football’s governing body to open a probe “as a matter of urgency”.

“This is not the first time our players have been subjected to this level of abuse and there is no place for this kind of behavior in society, let alone in football,” the FA said.

Tyrone Mings was one of those targeted on his England debut, and he said that stopping the game did have the desired effect of reducing racist abuse in the second half.

“We made the decision at half-time to come out and play the game which we thought was the right decision,” said Mings. “If anything else happened, we would have taken appropriate action.”

England led 2-0 through early goals from Marcus Rashford and Ross Barkley when play was first stopped in the 28th minute and an announcement made to supporters that the game could be suspended the abuse continued.

Once restarted, England quickly made it 3-0 through Barkley before a second stoppage, with Croatian referee Ivan Bebek holding discussions with players and coaching staff from both sides.

Bulgaria supporters in the crowd were also seen doing Nazi salutes and holding up shirts with the UEFA logo and the text “No Respect” a reference to the European governing body’s “Respect” campaign aimed at curbing racism in the sport. During the second break, several dozen of the Bulgaria fans involved in the chanting, many of them wearing dark hoodies, left the stadium.

Raheem Sterling then netted twice either side of half-time before Harry Kane rounded off the scoring to take England to the brink of qualification.

“We have made two statements by winning the game but also we have raised the awareness of everyone of the situation,” England coach Gareth Southgate said.

Southgate’s men have now scored 26 goals in 6 qualifying matches and are four points ahead of third-placed Kosovo with two matches to play.

However Kosovo’s 2-0 win over Montenegro means England need a win from one of their remaining two matches to ensure qualification.

France also missed a spot in the Euros when Ayhan’s leveller snatched a point for Turkey in a match played against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions after Paris condemned Ankara for its military offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria.

France looked set to take top spot in Group ‘H’ when Giroud met a corner with a firm header just minutes after coming on as a substitute. But Ayhan equalised with a header from a free kick in the 82nd, sparking wild celebrations among the visitors. The Turkish player ran toward the corner flag, where several of them lined up to perform a salute.

The draw leaves Didier Deschamps’ France and Turkey tied on 19 points each, while Iceland kept alive their qualification hopes with a 2-0 win over visiting Andorra. Iceland have 15 points and need to beat Turkey in the next round.

“We did what we needed to win the match based on the play and number of chances. They didn’t have many but put away a set-piece,” said Deschamps, whose team lost 2-0 to Turkey in June. “We should have been more clinical even if it’s still a good point. We’re still on track and need to finish to job in November.”

Ukraine are through to next summer’s finals after squeezing past Portugal, sealing first place in Group ‘B’ with 19 points, ahead of Portugal (11) and Serbia (10), who both have an extra game to play.

Andriy Shevchenko’s unbeaten team qualified thanks to first-half goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Andriy Yarmolenko, which meant that Ronaldo’s 72nd-minute penalty wasn’t enough for Portugal.

Ukraine join Poland, Russia, Italy and Belgium in the multi-host tournament which kicks off in Rome on June 12, with Shevchenko — who scored 48 times for Ukraine in 111 matches — proving a similar success on the bench as he was on the pitch.

Portugal were frustrated by Ukraine’s numbers in defence until Taras Stepanenko was sent off with his second yellow card for conceding a penalty for handball in the 72nd. Ronaldo blasted home the spot-kick to make it 700 goals for club and country, but they couldn’t find an equaliser despite some good chances.

“There are days like these, when the ball just doesn’t want to go in,” said Portuguese midfielder Danilo. “No need to do the maths now: we just need to win the next two games to reach Euro 2020.”

Serbia earned a 2-1 win in Lithuania.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019