Muller leads Germany, Lewandowski dispatches Denmark: 2018 World Cup qualifiers round-up

Thomas Muller, left, celebrates scoring the opening goal in Germany's 3-0 victory against the Czech Republic. Alex Grimm/Bongarts / Getty Images

Thomas Muller scored twice for the second World Cup qualifier in a row to lead dominant Germany to a comprehensive 3-0 win over Czech Republic on Saturday.

Toni Kroos was also on target to leave the world champions on six points from two games in Group C, alongside Azerbaijan after they beat Norway 1-0 in Baku with an early goal by Maksim Medvedev, and firmly on course for the finals in Russia in 2018.

The Czechs, who have one point, won 3-0 on their last visit to Germany in 2007 in the early days of coach Joachim Low’s long reign but never threatened a repeat.

“I’m very satisfied, we had control of the game for the whole time,” Low said.

“We built up our moves very well from the back. We put together some great combinations and didn’t give our opponents any chance.”

Germany broke the deadlock after 13 minutes when Mario Gotze burst down the left, his pass into the area was touched on by Mesut Ozil and Muller scored with a shot which took a slight deflection off a defender.

Germany, who beat Norway by the same score in their opening qualifier last month, continued to carve open the Czech defence with neat interchanges between Mueller, Ozil, Julian Draxler and Gotze who was playing as a false number nine.

Draxler pinged a shot just wide after Gotze pulled the ball back to him, Muller saw a low drive turned away by Czech goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik, then Gotze dinked the ball wide after a one-two with Muller.

Kroos doubled Germany’s lead four minutes after the restart when he got in front of his marker and placed a sidefooted shot past Vaclik after Joshua Kimmich rolled the ball across the edge of the area.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made his first save in the 63rd minute when he parried Borek Dockal’s powerful effort and the home team struck again two minutes later, Muller turning in Jonas Hector’s low cross at the near post.

“We could have scored more goals, we have played a very convincing game,” Muller said. “I’m happy to have scored two.”

Lewandowski dispatches Denmark

Kyle Lafferty struck twice, Steven Davis converted a penalty and Jamie Ward also scored to hand Northern Ireland a 4-0 win over San Marino, while Norway suffered a shock 1-0 loss away to Azerbaijan, who now have two wins from two.

Robert Lewandowski, Muller’s strike partner at Bayern Munich, tormented Denmark as he scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory in Warsaw to leave Poland level on four points with Montenegro and Romania in Group E.

Romania thrashed 10-man Armenia 5-0 in Yerevan as the visitors punished their opponents after the dismissal of Gor Malakyan in just the third minute, while Montenegro defeated Kazakhstan by the same scoreline.

Slovenia’s Rok Kronaveter scored his first international goal with his first touch of the ball after coming on as a substitute to give his side a 1-0 home win over Slovakia in a scrappy World Cup Group F qualifier.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who replaced Jasmin Kurtic in the 72nd minute, took a Josip Ilicic pass in his stride and sidefooted home a sublime shot from the edge of the penalty area two minutes later.

The result left Slovenia on four points from two games after their opening 2-2 draw in Lithuania while the Slovakians, who were beaten by England 1-0 at home, have none.

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