FIFA Men's World Cup

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's superb 1-0 victory over more heralded neighbors Croatia in World Cup qualifying showed they are more than just a nation of Alpine skiers, defender Petar Stojanović said on Thursday.

The Slovenians outplayed the 2018 World Cup runners-up on Wednesday at the start of Group H qualifying for next year's tournament in Qatar and Stojanović, who plays his club football for Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb, was delighted.

ISTANBUL - Veteran captain Burak Yılmaz netted a hat-trick as Turkey saw off a late rally from the Netherlands to secure a 4-2 home victory on Wednesday at the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Yılmaz opened the scoring in the 14th minute of the Group G match with a deflected shot followed by a penalty 20 minutes later at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium to put the Turks 2-0 up at halftime.

AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands team hope that this week’s start of the World Cup qualifiers in Europe will highlight the plight of migrant workers in Qatar and help to improve their working conditions.

"A lot of attention is now focused on whether we should go there if we qualify," coach Frank de Boer told a news conference on the eve of his team’s opening Group G match against Turkey in Istanbul, amid growing controversy at home over Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 finals. 

Belize's football federation (FFB) expressed "disappointment and disgust" on Monday after the bus ferrying the squad to their hotel in Haiti was stopped by an armed gang on motorcycles.

The incident occurred shortly after the squad had arrived in the Caribbean nation to play a World Cup qualifier.

STOCKHOLM - AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimović shed a few tears of pride as he returned to Sweden's national team after a four-year absence for their World Cup qualifiers and recounted how his son did not want him to leave home to join up with Janne Andersson's squad.

The 39-year-old, who quit international football after Euro 2016, choked up when he was asked what his boys, Maximilian, 14, and 12-year-old Vincent, thought of his decision to answer his country's call again and return to the world stage.

MANCHESTER - Next week's World Cup qualifying games in Europe and beyond are set to be heavily affected by clubs refusing to release players for international duty, COVID-19 quarantines and travel restrictions.

Inter Milan announced on Thursday that all of their players will be pulled out of international duty after two more positive COVID-19 cases at the club.

LONDON - England manager Gareth Southgate has dropped Liverpool full back Trent Alexander-Arnold from his squad while recalling on-loan West Ham midfielder Jesse Lingard for this month's World Cup qualifying matches against San Marino, Albania and Poland.

Alexander-Arnold has been a regular in the England squad since breaking into the side ahead of the 2018 World Cup but Southgate said his form had cost him his spot.

Former Italy captain Daniele De Rossi has joined Roberto Mancini's national team staff as technical coach, the Italian Federation said on Thursday.

Ex-Roma midfielder De Rossi is fourth on Italy’s all-time appearance list having played 117 times for the Azzurri, and takes up his first coaching role after retiring from playing last year when he left Boca Juniors.

Arsene Wenger says FIFA should consider holding the World Cup and Euros every two years and that a review of the international match calendar will consider compressed qualifiers and enforced breaks for players.

The former Arsenal manager is Chief of Global Football Development at world soccer's governing body and a close advisor to president Gianni Infantino.

Wenger said the current four year wait for a World Cup is unfair to players and the focus should be on "competitions of meaning," including the European Championships.