Hamburg - Bulgaria closed in on leaders Italy and Ireland in Group 8 of the European World Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 victory against Cyprus in Sofia on Wednesday.

Ivelin Popov and Dimitar Makriev scored the goals for the Bulgarians, who continued their unbeaten run in the qualifying campaign, but have just seven points from their five matches after drawing their opening four games.

Italy and Ireland, who clash in a later game in Bari, head the group with 13 and 11 points respectively.

Bulgarian coach Stanimir Stoilov said after the game that he was happy with the result. "It's a very important win for our team as we boosted our chances to reach the finals."

In another group game played in Tbilisi Georgia and Montenegro played to a goalless draw.

In a Group 5 game played in Tallinn Sander Puri scored the only goal of the game for Estonia against the visiting Armenia with just seven minutes to go.

The result, which was somewhat against the run of play, took Estonia to five points from their six games, while Armenia are on one point.

Belarus, who are still hoping for a second place finish in Group 6, came from behind to trounce Kazakhstan 5-1 in Almaty.

Renat Abdulin opened the scoring for the home side early on and then held on to the lead for the remainder of the first half, before a powerful Belarus team scored five times in the second half.

The goals for the visitors were scored by Aleksandr Hleb, Ihar Stasevich, Vitali Rodionov and a brace by Timofei Kalachev.

Belarus are currently fourth in the group with six points, six behind leaders England, but just one behind the second placed team Ukraine.

In Group 2 Latvia beat Luxembourg 2-0 in Riga through goals by Maris Verpakovskis and Jurijs Zigajevs to move second in the group with ten points from their six games.

Greece and Switzerland, who both have played a game less and are in action later Wednesday, are also on ten points.

Zoltan Gera, Roland Juhasz and Tamas Hajnal scored for Hungary in their 3-0 Group 1 victory against Malta in Budapest.

The group winners and the best second-placed team advance directly to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the other eight number two teams determine four further qualifiers in a playoff round. (dpa)