Germany and Italy moved closer to a place at the 2012 European Championship with contrasting victories yesterday, while France's progress in qualifying was stalled by dropping more points against Belarus.

Mario Gomez kept up Germany's perfect record in Group A with a first-half goal and a late winner in a 2-1 victory over Austria.

Italy cruised to a 3-0 win over Estonia in Group C, providing some positive news for the country amid the latest match-fixing scandal.

France remain top of Group D despite a four-match winning run ending in a 1-1 draw at Belarus, which had won in Paris earlier in the campaign.

Striker Ciprian Marica scored twice as Romania beat Bosnia 3-0 in another qualifier for the 2012 European Championship yesterday.

Razvan Rat set up Adrian Mutu for the opener in the 36th before providing the pass for Marica to score his first in the 40th. Marica doubled his tally in the 55th with a shot over Bosnian goalkeeper Kenan Hasagic.

Ciprian Sapunaru had a chance to make it 4-0 in added time at the end, but missed a penalty.

Romania had a goal disallowed in the 9th when Gabriel Muresan headed in from a throw-in — only for the officials to spot that Sapunaru didn't have both feet on the ground when he took the throw.

Bosnia also had a goal chalked off in the 19th when Zvjezdan Misimovic was flagged offside.