LILLE: Jerome Boateng scored his first international goal to set Germany on their way to a 3-0 win against Slovakia at Euro 2016 on Sunday as the world champions cruised into the quarter-finals.

Boateng opened his account eight minutes into his 63rd international appearance and Joachim Loew’s side never looked back against outclassed opponents.

Mesut Ozil had a penalty saved soon after but Julian Draxler set up Mario Gomez to double the lead two minutes before half-time and the impressive Draxler then completed the scoring just after the hour mark.

There was never any threat of a repeat of Slovakia’s 3-1 win when the teams met in a friendly just four weeks ago and Germany move on to a last-eight tie against either reigning champions Spain or old rivals Italy next weekend.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016