SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015 SPORTS Slovenia close to playoffs LJUBLJANA: Slovenia edged closer to a Stozice stadium also meant that the Euro 2016 playoff berth after a 1-1 home Swiss, 7-0 winners over San Marino, draw with Lithuania after two penalties in joined England, who beat Estonia 2-0, in a Group E match held up for several min- next year’s tournament in France. utes in the second-half by partial flood- Slovenia dominated the opening peri- light failure on Friday. od and, having missed several chances, The result, with Slovenia captain Valter they took the lead on the stroke of half- Birsa and Lithuania’s Arvydas Novikovas time when Birsa converted a penalty. each scoring from the spot, left the Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers awarded Slovenians third in the section on 13 the spot kick after a vicious Jasmin Kurtic points from nine games, three ahead of shot struck Marius Zaliukas on the arm Estonia and Lithuania. If all three sides and Birsa made no mistake, sending are level on points after Monday’s final Emilijus Zubas the wrong way. round of games, Slovenia will finish high- The Slovenians came close to dou- est with the best head-to-head record. bling their advantage three times before If Slovenia and Estonia finish tied on some of the floodlights went out and 13 points, the race will go down to over- seemingly turned around the two teams’ all goal difference in the group as both fortunes. sides have beaten each other 1-0 at Kuipers decided the match should home. Apart from being strong favourites continue and Lithuania capitalised after to get a result away to San Marino, the Slovenia defender Branko Ilic clumsily Slovenians also have a vastly superior handled a teasing cross from the right in goal difference of plus five to Estonia’s the closing stages. minus four in the group. Novikovas drilled the penalty into the Estonia entertain Switzerland in their top right corner and the Lithuanians then final match while Lithuania are at home held off a fierce Slovenian onslaught in a to England. The draw in Ljubljana’s frantic finish to claim a point. — Reuters Preview Germany seek Georgia win to seal Euro berth LEIPZIG: Under-fire Germany want to finish three wins in their nine matches and their qualifying campaign with a win over Germany have won all four meetings Georgia today to secure qualification to between the teams. Euro 2016 and bounce back from their Germany have not lost in 21 home qual- shock defeat to Ireland. ifiers since a 3-0 defeat by the Czech LOGRONO: Spain’s David Silva (left) is tackled Luxembourg’s Lars Gerson, during their Euro 2016 qualifying soccer match Group C between The world champions remain top of Republic in October 2007, including 17 Spain and Luxembourg. —AFP Group D despite suffering a 1-0 defeat to wins and four draws. the Irish on Dublin, which kept Martin In contrast, Georgia have won just one O’Neill’s side in contention to qualify direct- of their last 23 competitive away matches ly. and their single victory was a 3-0 win Spain still struggling Germany need only a draw at home to against minnows Gibraltar. minnows Georgia to ensure their ticket to Georgia, coached by former Eintracht France next year and even if they lost, only Frankfurt player Kakhaber Tskhadadze, will a draw between Poland and Ireland in be without injured playmaker Giorgi to revive golden era Warsaw would condemn them to a play-off Chanturia, who plays for Duisburg in spot. A draw in Dublin would have been Germany’s second division, but the visitors enough for Joachim Loew’s side but substi- will be looking to follow Ireland’s example. BARCELONA: Although reigning champions Germany and the Netherlands since the World been tried out, and Diego Costa has also had tute Shane Long made sure Irish eyes were “There is no bigger stage for our boys Spain have qualified for Euro 2016 there still Cup. “We have picked up a lot of points (in only moderate success. The favorites now to smiling with the winning second-half goal than a game against the world champions,” remains plenty of work to be done if they are qualifying) but it has not been easy,” coach lead the line appear to be Alvaro Morata and after outpacing Mats Hummels and Jerome said former Hertha Berlin defender Levan to match the heights they attained in their Vicente Del Bosque told reporters. “We have Paco Alcacer. Boateng before beating Manuel Neuer in Kobiashvili, who is now president of the golden spell before their failure at the Brazil had some difficult moments.” Morata’s strong form for Juventus pushed the Germany goal on Thursday. Georgian FA. “This is a dream.” World Cup. They will go to the tournament having won him ahead of Alcacer and he looked lively The top two sides go through from the But a third defeat in their Euro qualify- A routine 4-0 victory over Luxembourg on the European Championship in 2008 and 2012, against an albeit weak Luxembourg defence group, but Germany, on 19 points are just ing campaign would be a nightmare for Friday rubber-stamped their passage to France along with the 2010 World Cup, but Del but went off injured after half an hour. It one ahead of Poland and Ireland. Finishing Germany, having already lost to Poland and next year having won eight of their nine quali- Bosque has had to rebuild the side following opened the door for Alcacer, who has not had third in the group could put Germany in now the Irish, on their rocky road to the fying matches in Group C. the poor display in Brazil. a regular place in the Valencia team this sea- the unthinkable position of needing to win European championships in France. Still they have been made to work hard and Their inability to get out of the group stage son, and he took full advantage with two a two-legged play-off to reach Euro 2016. Loew described the Dublin defeat as have not been able to ease to victory against led to several of the older faces like Xavi and goals. But Loew is more concerned with simply “unexpected” and “unnecessary”. “We were inferior sides on paper. Against Luxembourg Xabi Alonso making way for new blood. Defensively also Spain have little cover bouncing back from a rare and surprising superior, we were dominant, but we didn’t again they got the goals in the end but it was a While they are spoilt for choice in midfield, for regular centre halves Sergio Ramos and defeat by returning to winning ways. “The do anything with it. It was one of the most long way from the dominant ‘tiki-taka’ football they lack options in attack where they have Gerard Pique. Inigo Martinez’s star has been situation is clear, but we have things in our unnecessary defeats we have suffered in when they swept aside opponents with quick never been able to replace the goals from on the wane at Real Sociedad and the inex- own hands and we want to win against recent years,” he said. passing. David Villa and Fernando Torres in their pomp. perienced Marc Bartra of Barcelona and Real Georgia to qualify directly,” said Loew. This is not the first time Germany have Tellingly, they have struggled in friendlies Fernando Llorente, Alvaro Negredo and Madrid’s Nacho Fernandez are the other Loew will also have to do without a cou- failed to hit the target in front of goal since against stronger sides and have lost to France, Roberto Soldado are among players who have options. — Reuters ple of key components from his World Cup winning the World Cup and Loew says they winning team as forward Mario Goetze is will fix that against Georgia. definitely out with a hamstring tear while “The final passes were not arriving in the captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is doubtful penalty area against Ireland and that is after injuring a hamstring in the warm-up something which we must improve,” said in Dublin. Loew. “We lacked some decent finishing, “Mario will not be there for sure. We’ll then we made one mistake, opened the have to wait to see how Schweinsteiger is, door for them and Ireland took their but his chances are very small,” said Loew. chance. “But in terms of fighting spirit, I Georgia are second from bottom with just can’t fault my team.” — AFP Swiss book Euro 2016 spot ST GALLEN: Switzerland booked a place at utes. They had to wait until 10 minutes into Euro 2016 by thrashing minnows San the second half to extend their advantage, Marino 7-0 at home on Friday to clinch sec- however, when Gokhan Inler fired home ond place in Group E with a match to spare. from the penalty spot following a handball The Swiss, who scored six second-half by Davide Cesarini. goals, have 18 points from their nine Admir Mehmedi steered into an empty matches and are five points clear of third- net when Simoncini diverted a Fabian placed Slovenia, whose own faint hopes of Schaer shot into the forward’s path to make automatic qualification were dashed in a 1- it 3-0 in the 65th. 1 draw at home to Lithuania. Johan Djourou added a fourth from Switzerland, who will finish behind another penalty on 72 minutes after Schaer group winners England, play their final was brought down inside the box, before match of the campaign in Estonia tomor- Pajtim Kasami made it 5-0 on 75 minutes row.