Italy maintain unbeaten record in Bulgaria draw; Gareth Bale nets brace against Israel

Italy and Netherlands both fought back with late equalisers but settled for surprise draws, while Gareth Bale was again Wales' hero in European Championship qualifying on Saturday.

After a week of talk over foreign-born players in the Italy squad, Brazilian-born Eder curled home the equaliser for Italy, who salvaged a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria.

All of the other goals came in the opening 20 minutes. An own goal by Iordan Minev had given Italy an early 1-0 lead, but a long shot from Ivelin Popov and a diving header by Ilijan Micanski put Bulgaria ahead.

Sampdoria stiker Eder, making his debut for the Azzurri, came on as a substitute for Simone Zaza and leveled the score in the 84th minute with a curling shot from 20 yards.

Wesley Sneijder scored on a deflected shot in stoppage time to give the Netherland a 1-1 draw at home with Turkey.

Burak Yilmaz's goal in the first half but the visitors ahead, and the Dutch appeared second best until Sneijder's late effort took a deflection off Klaas Jan Huntelaar in the second minute of stoppage time.

Aaron Ramsey received a pass from Bale and opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time.

After the break, Bale flat-footed Israel keeper Ofir Marciano with a curling free kick into the top corner, a minute before Israel's Eitan Tibi picked up a second yellow card for a foul on the Real Madrid man.

 Ramsey set up Bale for his second in the 77th minute as Wales went top of Group B and dealt Israel their first defeat of the campaign.

In Group A, Czech Republic also dropped their first points in qualifying as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Latvia.

Aleksei Visnakovs opened the scoring for Latvia after half an hour and the hosts could not respond until the 90th minute when Vaclav Pilar salvaged a point.

Eidur Gudjohnsen celebrated his return from international retirement by setting Iceland on their way to a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan.

The Bolton striker opened the scoring before Birkir Bjarnason's double completed a comfortable win.

In Group H, Croatia dominated Norway 5-1 despite Vedran Corluka picking up two yellow cards in a five-minute span in the second half.

Goals from Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic and Ivica Olic put Croatia comfortably ahead, and Tarik Elyounoussi missed a penalty for Norway before Corluka was sent off.

Alexander Tettey got one back for the visitors, but Croatia's 10 men found two more goals in the final stages to complete the rout.