Spain and the Netherlands won qualifying matches and Germany and Portugal played a scoreless tie in Saturday's three key European World Cup qualifiers.
The Netherlands defeated age-old rival Belgium 3-0 to move atop qualifying Group Seven.Goals from Dennis Bergkamp (25th) - his 29th career goal for the Dutch - Clarence Seedorf (29th) and a penalty from Wim Jonk (50th) gave the Netherlands its third victory in a row. The Dutch lead their European group with a maximum of nine points out of three games. Wales is second with seven out of five and Belgium third with six out of three.
As in all of the European groups, only the group winner is assured of qualifying for the 1998 World Cup finals in France.
Spain got a 2-0 home victory over previously unbeaten Yugoslavia on goals from Josep Guardiola on a penalty (19th) and Raul Gonzalez (37th). The win left Spain with 10 points in four games in Group Six, just behind Yugoslavia with 12 points in five games.
Portugal's 0-0 draw with Germany in Group Nine left the defending European champions with five points in three games. Portugal leads the group with eight points in five games. Ukraine has six in three games.
After its 11-1 away thrashing of Liechtenstein, Macedonia came down to earth with a 3-0 home loss to Romania Saturday.
Barcelona star Gheorghe Popescu scored all the goals as the Romanians romped to the top of the Group Eight standings. Romania has a maximum nine points from three games and Macedonia drops to second with seven from five.
Bulgaria scored a 3-1 victory at Cyprus to leap-frog Israel and move into second place in Group Five.
Two goals by Krassimir Balakov, who plays in Germany for VfB Stuttgart, and another by Benfica's Ilian Iliev overpowered the Cypriots, who remained fourth of the five teams with three points.
Russia leads the standings with seven points and Bulgaria has six. Israel, with four points in three games, can regain second place Sunday when it plays last-place Luxembourg.
Northern Ireland followed a 1-1 tie at European champion Germany by downing Albania 2-0 in another Group Nine game.
Iain Dowie netted the two first-half goals to keep the Northern Irish in contention with five points - the same as Germany. Germany has a game in hand.
Wales, crushed 7-1 by the Netherlands in its previous Group Seven game, at least didn't concede any against Turkey at Cardiff. It didn't score any either.
Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was back after an injury to pose problems to the Turks, but Kemalettin Senturk hit the Welsh crossbar and veteran Wales goalkeeper Neville Southall, in his 90th appearance in national colors, made some brilliant saves in a 0-0 tie.
The point gained Wales second place in the group with seven. The Netherlands leads with nine. The Dutch have two games in hand.
The United States defeated Costa Rica Saturday (see accompanying story) in a CONCACAF game while four games are scheduled Sunday in South America.
Colombia, which is unbeaten and leads the nine-nation standings, visits last-place Venezuela without injured top scorer Faustino Asprilla.
Second-place Paraguay goes to Bolivia, Argentina plays host to Chile and Uruguay welcomes Peru.
Four teams will qualify from the South African group for the 1998 finals along with defending titlist Brazil.