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June 12, 2017

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Germany hits 7, Kane saves English blushes

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 equalizer to deny Scotland on Saturday.

Having already trounced San Marino 8-0 earlier, Germany’s almost second string line-up 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 3-0 up before the half-hour mark. Amin Younes added the 4th seven minutes before the break while Shkodran Mustafi added a 5th two minutes after the restart.

Julian Brandt made it six 18 minutes from time before Wagner completed his hat-trick in the 85th as Germany continued its perfect start to qualifying, a feat matched only by the Swiss in Group B.

In Glasgow, Kane marked his first match as captain with an equalizer 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 free-kicks from Leigh Griffiths in the final 3 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 Raheem Sterling to earn a 2-2 draw.

It meant England avoided a first qualifying defeat since October 2009.

However, its lead at the top of Group F was cut to 2 points as Slovakia won 2-1 in Lithuania.

Slovenia also closed the gap on England to 3 after a 2-0 win over Malta.

Germany’s 5-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. Northern Ireland strengthened its grip on second place as the Czech Republic dropped 4 points behind after being held 1-1 in Norway.

Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Poland kept its 6-point lead in Group E with a 3-1 victory over Romania.


 

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