GERMANY SMACK SEVEN, KANE RESCUES ENGLAND
Paris, June 11: Germany ran up an expected goal avalanche in thrashing San Marino 7-0 as Harry Kane celebrated his first start as England captain with a late equaliser to deny Scotland on Saturday.
Having already trounced San Marino 8-0 in the reverse fixture, Germany’s almost second string lineup quickly set about running up another rugby score in Nuremberg.
Julian Draxler opened the scoring on 11 minutes before a brace from Sandro Wagner had the Germans 30 up before the half hour mark.
Amin Younes added the fourth seven minutes before the break while Shkodran Mustafi added a fifth two minutes after the restart.
Julian Brandt made it six 18 minutes from time before Wagner completed his hat-trick on 85 minutes as Germany continued their perfect start to qualifying.
In Glasgow, Kane marked his first match as captain with an equaliser three minutes into injury time in a match between old enemies that burst into life in the dying moments.
There had been little warning of what was to come during a largely uninspiring encounter that only started to warm up once English substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had given the visitors a 1-0 lead on 70 minutes.
But two sumptuous freekicks from Leigh Griffiths in the final three minutes looked to have given Scotland a stunning turnaround victory.
Yet a first win over the English since 1999 was denied Gordon Strachan’s team deep into stoppage time as Kane fired home a cross from Raheen Sterling to earn a 2-2 draw.
It meant England avoided a first qualifying defeat since October 2009.
However, their lead at the top of Group F was cut to two points as Slovakia won 2-1 in Lithuania.
Slovenia also closed the gap to England to three points following a 2-0 win over Malta.
Germany’s five point lead atop Group C was maintained as Stuart Dallas scored two minutes into injury time to give Northern Ireland a 1-0 win over Azerbaijan in Baku.
Lewandowski fires treble for Poland Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick, including two penalties, as Poland kept their six point lead in Group E with a 3-1 victory over Romania.
Montenegro and Denmark remain locked on points in the battle for second place after respective victories, 4-1 at home to Armenia and 3-1 in Kazakhstan.
Stevan Jovetic also notched a hat-trick after Fatos Beqiraj had given Montenegro the lead in Podgorica.
Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen scored from the spot as Denmark came away from the Kazakh capital with three points.