Daniele De Rossi Italy
Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi is over the moon after scoring the equaliser against Spain in their FIFA World Cup qualifier, October 6, 2016Reuters

A late penalty helped Italy hold Spain, while Austria and Wales played out an entertaining 2-2 draw. Iceland were winners thanks to a brilliant comeback, with the Republic of Ireland also finishing their match with all three points in their kitty after Thursday's FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Europe.

Italy vs Spain was the undoubted marquee match of the day, with the 2012 world champions deservedly taking the lead through Vitolo, who could not believe his luck when Gianluigi Buffon came out of his goal to try and snuffle out the Sevilla forward, only to give him an opening to go around the goalkeeper and slot the ball into an empty net.

Spain, while definitely deserving their lead, were also lucky to stay with all 11 men on the pitch when Diego Costa was not shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away in frustration at an offside decision. After Julen Lopetegui immediately substituted the Chelsea man, you would have expected Spain, who lost to Italy in the round of 16 in Euro 2016, to see off the game, but Italy fought back.

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With less than ten minutes remaining, Eder was brought down inside the box by Sergio Ramos, the referee pointed to the spot and De Rossi made no mistake with the penalty, ensuring Italy would take a point.

The other two matches in Group G saw Macedonia go down to Israel 2-1, while Liechtenstein were beaten 2-0 by Albania.

In Group D, Wales were left disappointed by a Marko Arnautovic double. After Joe Allen opened the scoring for Wales with a brilliant volley, his Stoke City teammate Arnautovic levelled the proceedings just before the half hour.

However, Wales went into halftime with a 2-1 lead thanks to a Kevin Wimmer own goal, only for Arnautovic to pounce on a defensive mistake soon after resumption to level the match back at 2-2. And so it ended as well, with Wales, already without the injured Aaron Ramsey, contemplating playing the next game with Allen, who felt his hamstring go.

The Republic of Ireland picked up a vital 1-0 win over Georgia, with Seamus Coleman scoring in the 56th minute, but there were injury worries in that match as well with Robbie Brady going down with a serious head injury.

Serbia also picked up a win in Group D, easing past Moldova 3-0, thanks to goals from Filip Kostic, Branislav Ivanovic and Dusan Tadic.

Group I saw an entertaining game between Iceland and Finland, with the former staging a dramatic comeback win. With the match in Finland's favour at 2-1 going into the final minute of normal time, Iceland grabbed two goals, in the 90th and sixth minute of stoppage time, through Alfred Finnbogason and Ragnar Singurdsson, to turn the match on its head and grab all three points.

Turkey and Ukraine played out a 2-2 draw, while Kosovo's first "home" game, played in Albania, ended in a 6-0 defeat to Croatia.

Results: Group D: Republic of Ireland 1-0 Georgia; Austria 2-2 Wales; Moldova 0-3 Serbia.

Group G: Italy 1-1 Spain; FYR Macedonia 1-2 Israel; Liechtenstein 0-2 Albania.

Group I: Kosovo 0-6 Croatia; Iceland 3-2 Finland; Turkey 2-2 Ukraine.