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LONDON (AP) -Unconvincing wins for Italy, England, Spain and Portugal were all overshadowed Saturday when France started its attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a humbling 3-1 defeat at Austria.
While Italy won 2-1 at Cyprus and European Champion Spain beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0, France continued to show the same poor form that brought a surprise first-round exit from Euro 2008 by losing to a team 91 places below it in FIFA's world rankings.
"Like every other loss, this one hurts," France coach Raymond Domenech said. "We built up lots of pressure but did not convert our chances. It just wasn't going to be today.
Philippe Mexes, with an own goal, Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz scored for the home side in Vienna to deal a heavy blow to a France team that faces a tough Serbia team in its next match on Wednesday.
But Lithuania and not Austria was the surprise early leader of Group 7 following a 3-0 win at Romania, while Serbia beat visiting Faeroe Islands 2-0.
Italy escaped with victory following an injury-time goal from Antonio Di Natale, while England needed two second-half goals from substitute Joe Cole to earn a 2-0 win at Andorra and end the jeers from their own supporters at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.
Portugal did better with a 4-0 win at Malta, but that came only after it added three goals in the last 29 minutes after clinging to a first-half own goal for much of the match.
Lukas Podolski scored twice to lead Euro 2008 runner-up Germany to a 6-0 rout of Liechtenstein, but none of the other favored teams performed at their best.
England coach Fabio Capello dropped David Beckham in one of four changes to the team that struggled in last month's drawn friendly against the Czech Republic, but his side only really came to life following the halftime introduction of Cole and striker Emile Heskey.
Cole put his team ahead in the 49th when he smashed in a close-range shot from a flick by Joleon Lescott, and he made it 2-0 nine minutes later with a low finish from Wayne Rooney's defense-splitting pass. He thought he had scored his hat trick with a back-heeled flick, but the goal was ruled out because he was offside.
But it was a poor performance in a match that was supposed to be a straightforward warmup for England's next Group 6 game - at Croatia.
"You have to judge us on Wednesday's game," Cole said. "We still have a lot to prove."
In the other Group 6 games, Croatia beat Kazakhstan 3-0 and Ukraine beat Belarus 1-0.
