LONDON, Sept 7: Germany recorded the biggest victory in the history of the European Championship when they crushed San Marino 13-0 in a Group D qualifier on Wednesday.

Germany's huge win in Serravalle will increase the growing argument that UEFA should reorganise the competition to prevent the top nations playing one-sided matches against the tiniest countries on the continent.

Lukas Podolski netted four times, while Miroslav Klose, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Bastian Schweinsteiger all scored twice.

France recorded a victory no less sweet when they beat Italy 3-1 in their Group B match in Paris in a quick re-run of the World Cup final of two months ago when the Italians beat them on penalties to become world champions.

Sidney Govou scored twice for France and Thierry Henry got their other goal while Alberto Gilardino scored for the world champions who have made a poor start to the qualifiers following their 1-1 home draw with Lithuania in Naples on Saturday.

There was an important away victory for England who overcame Macedonia 1-0 in Group E to record their second successive win in the group. Peter Crouch scored the only goal.

The Netherlands also maintained their 100 percent start in Group G with a 3-0 win over Belarus in Eindhoven.

There was a big shock in Belfast where Northern Ireland, who lost 3-0 at home to Iceland on Saturday, recovered to beat Spain 3-2 in Group F with David Healy scoring a hat-trick.

The result evoked memories of one of Northern Ireland's greatest wins – a 1-0 victory over Spain in the 1982 World Cup finals – and was the biggest upset of Wednesday's 21 matches.

Georgia looked like they would have that honour when they led Ukraine 2-1 in their Group B match with 30 minutes to go but the hosts hit back to win 3-2 with goals from Ruslan Rotan and Andriy Rusol.

Both of the countries that were forced to play away from home won, with Turkey beating Malta 2-0 in their Group C match in Frankfurt and Israel swamping Andorra 4-1 in their Group E game played in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

No team, of course, scored as many goals as Germany, who stole the spotlight with their biggest competitive win outside Olympic soccer and smashed the old competition record set when Spain beat Malta 12-1 in a qualifier nearly 23 years ago.

Wednesday’s results: