LONDON: Traditional heavyweights Germany and Portugal earned important wins to boost their hopes of qualifying for the 2016 European Championship on Sunday, while Romania and Northern Ireland hold a big edge in their group after victories.

Marco Reus and Thomas Mueller scored late in the first half to give Germany a 2-0 win over Georgia in Tbilisi, keeping them in the hunt for automatic qualification for the finals in France from Group ‘D’ after a shock defeat to Poland and a home draw with Ireland last October.

Reus scored in the 39th minute when he was free to scoop the ball inside the near post after Mario Goetze tried forcing his way past a number of defenders and Mueller sealed the result five minutes later with a low drive into the bottom corner.

“It is always hard against a team which defends so deep and we made one or two mistakes too many, but the bottom line is a 2-0 win is okay. We needed the points,” said captain Bastian Schweinsteiger. “We need to keep improving and we have plenty of time until our next qualifiers.”

Scotland’s 6-1 drubbing of bottom side Gibraltar in Glasgow left the Scots and Germany level on 10 points in the table, with Poland a point ahead after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ireland (eight points) for whom substitute Shane Long scored an injury-time equaliser in Dublin.

Goals from Ricardo Carvalho and Fabio Coentrao gave Portugal a 2-1 win over Serbia at the at the La Luz stadium in Lisbon to move top of Group ‘I’.

Nemanja Matic capped a fine individual display for Serbia with a breathtaking equaliser in the 61st, unleashing an unstoppable overhead volley to briefly cancel out Ricardo Carvalho’s early headed opener but Coentrao got the winner two minutes later.

Portugal top the group with nine points from four games, followed by Denmark and Albania who have seven each while Serbia stay joint bottom with Armenia, who lost 2-1 to Albania, on one point halfway through the qualifying campaign.

“We were poor in the first half but improved in the second and that’s how we should play in the rest of our campaign,” Matic told reporters with the defeat leaving Serbia with only a slim hope of reaching Euro 2016. “We will not give up until there is a mathematical chance.”

Romania and Northern Ireland tightened their grip on the top two places in Group ‘F’ after home wins over the Faeroe Islands and Finland, respectively.

Claudiu Keseru’s 21st-minute goal was enough for Romania to beat the Faeroes 1-0, while Northern Ireland moved a step closer to appearing in a first major tournament since 1986 by beating Finland 2-1 with Kyle Lafferty scored both their goals in the first half at Windsor Park.

At the halfway stage, Romania lead with 13 points, one ahead of Northern Ireland, with Hungary following on eight points. Finland have four points, the Faeroe Islands three, while Greece are bottom of the group with two after a goalless draw against Hungary.

The top two finishers from each of the nine groups qualify automatically. The best third-place team also qualifies, and eight more teams can advance through playoffs.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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