Skipper grabs crucial equaliser
While Harry Kane didn’t contribute to the glut of hat-tricks in European qualifying for the World Cup, the England striker grabbed a crucial equaliser in a chaotic finale against Scotland yesterday.
A dramatic final six minutes in Group F at Hampden Park saw Scotland come from 1-0 down to take the lead through two Leigh Griffiths free kicks. Kane, captaining England for the first time, volleyed home deep into stoppage time to make it 2-2.
Things were simpler for Germany and Poland, who were aided by hattricks as the pair continued to dominate their groups.
Despite fielding a weakened team against San Marino, Germany stayed perfect in Group C with a 7-0 win. Sandro Wagner scored a hat-trick on just his second appearance for Joachim Loew’s side.
Poland stayed unbeaten as Robert Lewandowski’s hat-trick took him level with Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the scoring charts. Lewandowski scored two penalties during a 3-1 win over Romania.
But that wasn’t Group E’s only treble. Stevan Jovetic scored Montenegro’s first ever hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over Armenia.
Kane, who has led the Premier League’s scoring charts for the past two seasons, had mixed emotions.
“It [the goal] is definitely up at the top, it was a special day,” he said. “I did not know whether the keeper was going to come, so when I saw him stay on his line . . . what a ball it was.”
England’s position at the top of group F was weakened as Slovakia and Slovenia both won, but it left Hampden Park relieved to have kept their eight-year unbeaten run in tournament qualifying matches intact.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came off the bench to give England the lead before Griffiths’ free kicks looked to have snatched victory for Scotland.
But Kane popped up deep into stoppage time to preserve a two-point cushion for England in the standings.
Their nearest challengers are Slovakia, who secured a crucial 2-1 victory in Lithuania.
Marek Hamsik set up Vladimir Weiss for the opener and later added a stunning free kick of his own.
Slovenia are just one point further back in third place after a comfortable 2-0 win against Malta.
Josip Ilicic gave his side the lead with a fine curling effort from an acute angle before setting up Milivoje Novakovic to seal the victory.
In group C, it was a question of how many goals Germany would score against San Marino at Grundig Stadium in Nuremberg.
Norway and the Czech Republic played out a 1-1 draw in Oslo as Theodor Gebre Selassie scored from close range 10 minutes before the break, but Norway’s Alexander Soderlund equalised from the penalty spot.
Northern Ireland took advantage of the result as Stuart Dallas scored an injury-time goal to consolidate second place in the group, five points behind Germany, but four clear of the third-placed Czech Republic.
In group E, Poland stayed six points clear as Lewandowski got on the scoresheet for an 11th consecutive qualifying match. He emphatically headed home in the 57th before sealing his hat-trick with another penalty five minutes later.
Romania scored the goal of the night in the 77th through Bogdan Stancu’s stunning strike but their qualifying hopes look bleak after losing ground to second and thirdplaced Montenegro and Denmark.
Denmark kept pace with Montenegro in the race for second place as they beat 10-man Kazakhstan 3-1 in Almaty.