Germany extend perfect record
Inspired Hart earns sloppy England a point in Slovenia
HANOVER, Germany, Oct 12, (Agencies): Ruthless Germany made it three wins from three World Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 victory over spirited Northern Ireland to stay top of their group.
First-half goals by Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira sealed the win in Hanover and the world champions have yet to concede a goal in their qualifiers for Russia 2018.
Germany have lost just two of 85 World Cup qualifiers in their proud history and were in no mood to give the Northern Irish a first win on German soil for 33 years.
With nine qualifying points to their credit, the Germans will finish the year with a perfect record if they next beat minnows San Marino, ranked 198 places below them, away on November 11.
The same night, third-placed Northern Ireland host Azerbaijan, who are second in Group C, in a crunch qualifier.
Germany’s head coach Joachim Loew started with the same side which beat the Czech Republic 3-0 in Hamburg on Saturday.
His opposite number Michael O’Neill made three changes to the side which beat 10-man San Marino 4-0 in Belfast, but Kyle Lafferty, who netted twice on Saturday, started again on the bench.
Having been restricted to a 1-0 win when the sides last met, in the group stages of Euro 2016, the Germans raced into a 2-0 lead with less than 20 minutes gone.
Mario Goetze’s header tested Irish goalkeeper Michael McGovern early on and Germany took the lead on 13 minutes.
Thomas Mueller laid the ball off for Draxler, who rifled his shot into the bottom right-hand corner.
Despite packing bodies into the penalty area, the Irish defence was again beaten on 17 minutes when Mesut Ozil’s cross was headed on by Mats Hummels.
Khedira used his head to nudge the ball over the line to make it 2-0, but the goals spurred Northern Ireland into action.
Attacking midfielder Jamie Ward managed a weak shot at goalkeeper Manuel Neuer on a rare foray into the German half.
And a good save from McGovern denied Joshua Kimmich. Goetze then had the ball in the net when he flicked Mueller’s pass into the net, but the goal was flagged for offside.
With half-time approaching Jerome Boateng fouled Ward just outside the area, but Oliver Norwood blasted the free-kick over the bar on 42 minutes.
Loew brought on Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan for Ozil in the attacking midfield role, which seemed to disrupt the Germans’ rhythm.
The Irish dug in for the secondhalf as Germany struggled to make headway through the visitors’ dense defence.
The tempo dropped and good work from McGovern thwarted several German attacks.
Lafferty, who has scored nine goals in 11 qualifiers, came on for the final 15 minutes, but the German defence was rarely troubled.
England were indebted to inspired keeper Joe Hart as they stumbled to a 0-0 draw in Slovenia in World Cup qualifying Group F -- a result which ended their 14game winning sequence in qualifying matches.
Hart on loan with Torino after falling out of favour at Manchester City, was by far England’s most impressive player as he made several fine saves to keep out a vibrant home side.
With captain Wayne Rooney watching from the bench until the 73rd minute after being dropped by interim manager Gareth Southgate, England produced a disjointed display and Slovenia will rue failing to punish the visitors for some slipshod errors.
That was largely down to Hart whose clawing save from Jasmin Kurtic’s near-post header shortly after halftime was stunning.
All the pre-match talk was about the decision to drop Rooney, England’s all-time record scorer, and play Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Eric Dier in his place.
Dier had a mixed night, having his blushes saved by Hart after 15 minutes when his careless back pass let in Roman Bezjak. Seconds later Kurtic beat Hart but his right-foot curler bounced back off the post.
Rooney was eventually introduced late on, replacing Dele Alli in midfield. Taking the captain’s armband from Jordan Henderson he galvanised England somewhat and went close to scoring with a shot that flashed past Jan Oblak’s post.
Oblak did well to keep out Rooney’s Manchester United team mate Jesse Lingard’s powerful drive late on but victory would have been flattering for an England side who were fortunate to avoid their first defeat in a qualifier for 32 matches.
England failed to learn their lesson from a sloppy start to the first half after the restart.
First Josip Ilicic jinked through England’s flat-footed defence but failed to locate two unmarked team mates in the area. After Hart’s heroics to keep out Kurtic, Ilicic then flashed a left-foot snap shot just wide.
England continued to live dangerously and Henderson was guilty of a wayward pass to Gary Cahill that was intercepted by Ilicic who brought another fine save by Hart.
Danny Rose lashed one shot wide at the other end but England were relieved to walk off without losing too much ground, even if the jury remains out on Southgate’s job prospects.
Slovakia registered their first points with a commanding 3-0 victory over Scotland in Trnava where Robert Mak scored twice before Adam Nemec capped off a miserable evening for Gordon Strachan’s visitors.
In Hanover, defending champions Germany swept aside Northern Ireland 2-0 with first-half goals from Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira sending Joachim Loew’s men two points clear in Group C and looking ominous.
“We’ve done our job, taking six points (this past week) and not conceding any goals,” said Loew. “We scored our two goals very early and that allowed us to win without suffering.”
Azerbaijan extended their undefeated run with a hard-fought point in a goalless draw in the Czech Republic, Robert Prosinecki’s team a surprise second in the standings following their shock defeat of Norway at the weekend.
The Norwegians were in danger of another highly embarrassing result at home to San Marino before three goals in the final 13 minutes eased tensions in Oslo as the hosts won 4-1.
Robert Lewandowski snatched a dramatic stoppage-time winner as Poland overcome 10-man Armenia 2-1 in Warsaw.
Hrayr Mkoyan’s own goal just after the break gifted Poland the lead, but Armenia, who played a man down for an hour after the dismissal of Gael Andonian, levelled two minutes later through Marcos Pizzelli.
However, Lewandowski scored for the eighth straight qualifier as he headed in deep into injury time to keep Poland level on points with Group E leaders Montenegro, 1-0 winners in Denmark.
Romania are two points off the pace following a 0-0 draw with Kazakhstan in Astana.