Nations League: Denmark stun France, Netherlands take apart Belgium

Andreas Cornelius’s second-half double stunned France as Denmark won 2-1 at the Stade de France in their opening Nations League game. The Trabzonspor striker cancelled out Karim Benzema’s second-half opener for France with a neat 68th-minute finish and lashed in the winner with two minutes to go.

Denmark sit behind early group A1 leaders Austria, who opened their campaign with an impressive 3-0 win in Croatia in new head coach Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge.

Marko Arnautovic gave Austria a half-time lead before second-half goals from Michael Gregoritsch and Marcel Sabitzer sealed victory against the 2018 World Cup finalists.

Belgium’s opening group A4 encounter ended in an emphatic 4-1 defeat by the Netherlands in Brussels. Tottenham winger Steven Bergwijn’s long-range effort gave the visitors the lead at the break and Memphis Depay’s brilliant double in the space of six second-half minutes put them 3-0 up.

Denzel Dumfries added the Netherlands’ fourth before Michy Batshuayi headed a stoppage-time consolation for a poor Belgium team. Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku came off injured after just 27 minutes following a clash with Nathan Aké.

Memphis Depay doubles the Netherlands’ lead in Belgium. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Tomas Suslov scored the only goal as Slovakia made a winning start against group C3 rivals Belarus in Novi Sad, Serbia. Kazakhstan got their group C3 campaign off to a flying start as two second-half goals from Abat Aymbetov secured them a 2-0 home win against Azerbaijan.

Latvia forward Roberts Uldrikis also scored twice, one in either half, during his side’s opening group D1 win against Andorra in Riga, with Janis Ikaunieks’s late penalty sealing a 3-0 success. Group rivals Moldova won 2-0 in Liechtenstein thanks to Ion Nicolaescu’s early penalty and Vadim Bolohan’s late effort.