Hamburg, Sep 7 (DPA) France gained revenge for their football World Cup final loss to Italy, crushing the Azzurri 3-1 in a Euro 2008 Group B qualifier in Paris.

Italy were a shadow of the team Wednesday that beat the French on penalties in Berlin in July, going behind to a Sidney Govou effort after only a minute.

Italy, missing the injured Alessandro Nesta and the suspended Marco Materazzi, fell further behind when Thierry Henry made it 2-0 on 17 minutes.

Although Alberto Gilardino pulled one back, Govou struck again 10 minutes after the restart to give Les Blues a deserved win.

"Tonight it did not go well," admitted Italy coach Roberto Donadoni, whose side have just one point from two matches in Group B, where France and Scotland, 2-1 winners in Lithuania lead with a perfect six-point score.

Meanwhile in Group F, David Healy was the toast of Belfast after leading Northern Ireland to a shock 3-2 win. The Leeds United striker put away an astonishing hat-trick to sink the hapless Spaniards, who twice took the lead at Windsor Park.

The surprise result leaves both of the teams with three points from two matches. Sweden top the group with six points after a 3-1 win over Liechtenstein while Denmark also have three points after a 2-0 win over Iceland.

A Bernd Schneider penalty in the final minute of normal time sealed a record-breaking 13-0 win for Germany over San Marino in Group D.

The result beats Germany's previous highest victory in a competitive football match - a 12-0 defeat of Cyprus in a World Cup qualifier 37 years ago. It also surpassed Germany's previous best away win, a 9-1 hammering of Luxembourg in 1934.

Lukas Podolski scored four to add to the goal he scored in the 1-0 defeat of Ireland in Germany's opening qualifying match Saturday while Miroslav Klose, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Hitzlsberger all scored twice.

Team captain Michael Ballack also got his name on the scoresheet while goalkeeper Jens Lehmann nearly got in on the act, initially coming upfield to take the late penalty before deciding the gesture could be construed as humiliating by the home side.

The result leaves the World Cup semi-finalists joint top of Group D on six points with the Czech Republic who defeated Slovakia 3-0.

In Group C, Norway built on the weekend defeat of Hungary, defeating Moldova 2-0 to remain top on now six points. Turkey got their campaign off to a winning start, beating Malta by the same scoreline while Hungary surprised Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-1.

The Netherlands made it two wins in succession in Group G, Robin van Persie scoring twice in the 3-0 beating of Belarus. In other group action, Bulgaria hammered Slovenia 3-0 and Romania overcame Albania 2-0.

Peter Crouch's 11th international goal in 10 matches secured England a 1-0 victory over Macedonia in their Group E tie in Skopje.

After beating Andorra 5-0 Saturday, England sit top with six points from two games, but there was a touch of desperation about their defending in the final minutes.

"In spells we had to dig really deep," said manager Steve McClaren. "It was a team effort. The back four were magnificent."

In other Group E action, Russia and Croatia played out a scoreless draw while Israel moved onto six points with England, thanks to a 4-1 beating of Andorra.

World Cup semi-finalists Portugal could only draw 1-1 with Finland in their opening game in Group A. The Finns sit top with four points level with Serbia, who drew 1-1 with Poland, and Belgium, 1-0 victors over Armenia.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan played out a 1-1 draw in the other Group A match played Wednesday.