England’s Kane silences Scotland with late tally

GLASGOW (Reuters) – Harry Kane’s injury-time goal gave England a 2-2 draw in a crazy finish to their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday after Leigh Griffiths had struck twice for the home side in the final three minutes.

Scotland was moments away from a famous victory after the Celtic striker scored with a pair of superbly taken free kicks in the 87th and 90th minutes. Substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had put England in front in the 70th.

With Hampden Park in raptures after Griffiths’s double strike, Kane saved England from a humiliating loss to its old rival with his late goal from close range.

England remains top of Group F on 14 points, while Scotland is in fourth spot on eight points.

In other action, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, taking his tally in the World Cup qualifiers to 11, to help his country claim a somewhat flattering but important 3-0 win away to Latvia on Friday.

Portugal’s fifth successive win in Group B left it with 15 points from six games, but still three behind leader Switzerland, which beat Faroe Islands 2-0 to maintain a 100 percent record.

Ronaldo, Portugal’s all-time leading scorer, took his tally to 73 goals for his country after another decisive performance.

The group looks increasingly like it will boil down to the final match between Portugal and Switzerland in October which the European champion must win to top the standings, qualify directly and avoid a perilous two-leg playoff.

Also, an error by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris handed Sweden’s Ola Toivonen a last-gasp goal to secure a 2-1 win in their Group A qualifier on Friday.

Lloris’s poor clearance fell straight to the midfielder who lobbed the ’keeper from inside his own half to steal the points and delight the home fans and their celebrating players.

France had led through a superb left-foot strike by forward Olivier Giroud after 37 minutes, but that was canceled out by a precise low finish from Sweden’s Jimmy Durmaz in the 43rd.

The win put Sweden top of the group, level on 13 points with France and three ahead of the Netherlands, which beat visiting Luxembourg 5-0 on Friday.