SPORTS Monday, March 27, 2017 23 England ease past Lithuania Schuerrle inspires Baku Borussia Dortmund. ermany leaked their first The away win means goal since July, but still Germany stay top of Group England’s striker Jermain Defoe (L) scores his team’s first goal Gextended their perfect record C with five wins from five, London on the front foot, with Adam in World Cup qualifiers to scoring 20 goals and having ermain Defoe adorned his Lallana prominent. five straight wins following now conceded just once. international comeback with The Liverpool Sunday’s 4-1 victory away Germany were near full Ja goal as England toiled to a saw a deflected shot caught to Azerbaijan with Andre strength, but with captain 2-0 victory over Lithuania in a by Ernestas Setkus and then Schuerrle scoring twice. and goalkeeper Manuel From L: Germany’s forgettable World Cup qualifier produced a clever pass down First-half goals by Neuer out with the calf injury, Jonas Hector, at Wembley yesterday. the inside-right channel for Schuerrle, Thomas Mueller Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Andre Schuerrle, Defoe, 34, was making his Defoe, whose shot was blocked and Mario Gomez put the Leno made only his fourth Mario Gomez and first England appearance since by the Lithuania goalkeeper. world champions 3-1 up at the appearance between the posts. Thomas Mueller November 2013, having been Defoe’s penalty-box cunning break, although Azerbaijan Juventus’ defensive celebrate recalled by manager Gareth was one of the reasons midfielder Dimitrij Nazarov, midfielder took Southgate, and he marked his Southgate picked him over who plays in Germany, had over the captain’s armband in club Erzgebirge Aue, finished season. Gomez then made return with the opening goal Vardy and he vindicated his netted an early equaliser Neuer’s absence. a counter-attack with a his height count as the 1.89m midway through the second manager’s call by putting to the delight of the home The world champions went superb strike. It was the first (six foot, two inches) striker half. England ahead in the 22nd crowd. ahead with the first clear time the German defence has outjumped Azerbaijan’s Substitute Jamie Vardy minute. It was the first goal chance. spotted been beaten in five World right-back Magomed added a second goal as England Germany had conceded space on the left wing for Cup qualifiers. Mirzabekoto, 1.68m (five foot, tightened their grip on first Valskis let-off following seven previous Jonas Hector to whip in a But it stayed 1-1 for only five inches), to head home place in UEFA qualifying Raheem Sterling slipped past clean sheets -- a national team cross which Schuerrle stabbed five minutes as Schuerrle ’s cross on 45 Group F in Southgate’s first Egidijus Vaitkunas on the left record -- dating back to their home with 19 minutes gone. restored the lead by poaching minutes. home game as permanent before rolling in a cross that 2-0 defeat in Marseille against It was Schuerrle’s first possession and snuffing out a Mesut Ozil replaced Gomez manager. Defoe planted into the net for France in the semi-finals of Germany goal since his hat- Azerbaijan counter attack. for the final 30 minutes but His side are now the last team his first international goal since Euro 2016. trick in the 7-0 thrashing of He placed his pass in behind the tempo dropped with in European qualifying yet to March 2013. He threatened However, Schuerrle added minnows Gibraltar in June the defence for Mueller to Khedira going close when have conceded a goal. to notch a 21st England goal a late second goal to reward 2015. convert on 36 minutes. his shot was saved with 15 Defoe’s strike, the Sunderland moments later, thudding a shot the faith shown in him by However, Azerbaijan It was Mueller’s fifth minutes left. veteran’s 20th in 56 caps, was an wide from range. Germany’s head coach fought back and drew level goal in five 2018 qualifiers Schuerrle sealed the win obvious high point and second- Joe Hart, captain for the day, Joachim Loew despite a with 31 minutes gone. this season, although he has on 81 minutes by converting half substitute Marcus Rashford had been a virtual bystander, series of below- par Nazarov, who plays for netted just two another good cross from the delivered an impressive cameo. but the England goalkeeper displays for Bundesliga second division goals for Bayern this left by Hector. (AFP) But the stubbornly was almost embarrassed in unadventurous nature of first-half stoppage time. Lithuania’s approach to The assistant referee’s the game, which made for a flag stayed down despite soporific match, meant there Nerijus Valskis appearing to was little to shout about from be blatantly offside and the Raonic withdraws from Miami an England perspective. Lithuanian forward managed The game was preceded to head the ball past Hart, Miami old returned to action in Miami Wimbledon where he reached the by the laying of wreaths and obliging John Stones to njury-plagued world on Friday with a win over Serbian final, before losing to Andy Murray. a minute’s silence in honour hack clear. No. 5 Milos Raonic Viktor Troicki but said his injury “It hasn’t been fun the last of the four people killed and As England continued pulledI out of the Miami had flared up again. seven months. I haven’t played over 50 injured in Wednesday’s to labour in the second Open yesterday with a “It is the same muscle in the one tournament form start to terror attack in London. half, they were given recurrence of a hamstring hamstring it got progressively finish healthy. My goal for this Having tested out a 3-4-2-1 another let-off when injury, leaving the Canadian worse after my first round and after tournament was to at least finish system in the mid-week 1-0 Vykintas Slivka was star saying he would not practising yesterday (Saturday), it healthy.” friendly defeat in Germany, unable to find a way past return until he is 100 percent it was not possible to compete After Wimbledon, Raonic was Southgate reverted to a back Hart with a free shot from fit. today without putting myself at hampered by cramps at the U.S. four and his side were quickly just inside the box.(AFP) Raonic originally significant risk,” he told reporters. Open and the same issue caused suffered the injury in the Raonic was due to face American him to miss Canada’s Davis Cup semi-final at Delray qualifier Jared Donaldson. match with Chile in September. Beach and was forced His exit means three of the top A month later, he withdrew to forfeit the final five players in the world have had from the China Open before his Armenia 2, Kazakhstan 0 against American to sit out Miami due to injury. scheduled semi-final due to an San Marino 0, Czech Republic 6 Jack Sock. He World number one Andy Murray ankle injury and he had to pull out then missed this and number two Novak Djokovic a semi-final at the Paris Masters in Malta 1, Slovakia 3 month’s Masters pulled out before the tournament. November with a quadriceps tear. Montenegro 1, Poland 2 event at Indian Raonic has struggled with Looking ahead to the clay court Northern Ireland 2, Norway 0 Wells. injuries for several months and said season, Raonic said that he was not Romania 0, Denmark 0 The he had not been 100 percent fully going to play again until he was 26-year- fit for a tournament since last year’s fully fit. (AFP) Scotland 1, Slovenia 0