Lewandowski scores hat-trick in Poland’s win over Denmark
Poland and world champions Germany were the protagonists in yesterday’s evening matches as they scored important wins against Denmark and the Czech Republic respectively.
In Group E, Poland and Romania are joint leaders with four points.
Poland scored a very important win against the other potential Group winners Denmark.
It was Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski who was their hero scoring all their goals in the 20th, 36thand 48th minutes.
Denmark came back with two goals - a Glik own goal and from Poulsen in th 69th minute, but they were not enough to save a point.
Romania scored a rare, but handsome away win as they beat Armenia 5-0 in Yerevan.
It all went from bad to worse for Armenia.
It began with Malakyan, who captain Gor picked up a straight red card and was sent off just three minutes into the match.
A minute later, Bogdan Stancu put visiting Romania ahead, converting from the subsequent spot. Adrian Popa doubled the lead in the 10th, and Razvan Marin needed only two more minutes to put the result beyond doubt.
Their scoring appetite made it the fastest 3-0 lead in a European World Cup qualifier since 2000.
Nicolae Stanciu in the first half and Alexandru Chipciu in the second half finished Armenia off 5-0.
In another high-scoring game in the group, Montenegro netted four in the second half and grabbed its first win in qualifying.
Forward Stevan Jovetic directed Montenegro as captain, contributing a second-half goal.
Zarko Tomasevic opened the scoring in Podgorica, and Nikola Vukcevic, Fatos Beciraj and Stefan Savic piled on.It is a tight group with Poland and Romania having four points, one more than Montenegro and Denmark. Kazakhstan have one point and Armenia have none.
Germany registered their second successive win in Group C as they beat Czech Republic yesterday in Hamburg.
The world champions dominated the match from the outset and when they took the lead after just 13 minutes, they seemed to be cruising to an easy win.
It was Bayern Munich striker Thomas Muller who gave the world champions the lead on 13 minutes.
They attacked incessantly till the interval, but could not add further goals as their shots were either saved by the Czech goalie or never found the target.
But they had a perfect start to the second half when Tony Kroos of Real Madrid, scored the second with a powerful shot from the edge of the area that beat the goalie all ends up. And Muller added a third in the 65th minute.
The Germans have now joined Azerbaijan at the top of the Group with on six points
Also in Group C, N. Ireland had to fight harder than expected for
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But the win was enough to push them into second place in the group.
Their goals were scored by Steven Davis, Kyle Lafferty (2) and Jamie Ward.
In Group F, Scotland suffered a partial setback to their hopes as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Lithuania.
Fiodor Cernych stunned the Scots, giving the Lithuanians the lead in the 59th minute. But Scotland saved a point with an 89th minute equaliser by James McArthur.
Slovenia moved up to second place on 4 points after a slender 1-0 home win against Slovakia.
Kronaveter scored the all important goal on 74 minutes.
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