England and defending champions Germany remained on course for the 2018 World Cup on Sunday while Danny Blind was sacked as Dutch coach after his misfiring team faced missing a second straight major finals. At Wembley, Jermain Defoe marked his international comeback with a goal as England toiled to a 2-0 victory over Lithuania. Defoe, 34, who was making his first England appearance since November 2013, hit the target midway through the second half for his 20th international goal. Substitute Jamie Vardy added a second as England tightened their grip on first place in Group F. Gareth Southgate's side are now the last team in European qualifying yet to have conceded a goal. England have 13 points, four ahead of Slovakia with just the nine group winners in Europe guaranteed a place at the finals in Russia in 2018. "We'd have liked a bit more, but I think really only one team came to win the game and it's always difficult to break down a packed defense," said Southgate. Slovakia went second in the group with a 3-1 win at Malta while Scotland are six points off the pace after substitute Chris Martin scored an 88th-minute winner against Slovenia in Glasgow. A half-empty Hampden Park had looked resigned to seeing Scotland fail to prevail in what manager Gordon Strachan had described as a "must-win" match. The Scots were left cursing their bad luck after a first half during which Leigh Griffiths struck the woodwork twice in the space of a minute and Russell Martin had a headed goal ruled out for pushing. Their chance of the crucial win looked lost when substitute Ikechi Anya missed a great chance but Chris Martin, brought on in the 81st minute, latched on to Stuart Armstrong's threaded through ball to strike home a left-foot shot. Germany maintained their 100 percent record with a 4-1 win over Azerbaijan in Baku as they moved to 15 points in Group C. The world champions and Switzerland are the only two teams in Europe to still have perfect records. A brace from Andre Schuerrle and goals from Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez saw Germany take their unbeaten away run in World Cup qualifying to 44 games. Azerbaijan midfielder Dimitrij Nazarov, who plays in Germany, had netted an early equalizer to the delight of the home crowd before Joachim Loew's team stepped on the accelerator. "It does me good to score goals, but it's up to me to take my performances back to Germany and repeat them for Dortmund," said Schuerrle. Meanwhile, Blind was sacked as Netherlands coach after a 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria 24 hours earlier left the team's chances of reaching the finals hanging by the slenderest of threads. Blind, 55, had been in charge since July 2015, but Saturday's loss in Sofia left the Dutch in fourth place in Group A, six points behind leaders France. "It's a pity that it ends like this," said Blind. The Dutch are three-time runners-up at the World Cup but the likelihood of missing out on the finals would be a bitter pill to swallow after they also failed to qualify for Euro 2016. Northern Ireland stayed second in Group C, five points behind Germany, after a Jamie Ward goal in just the second minute and a Conor Washington strike on the half hour gave their team a 2-0 win over Norway in Belfast. Ward curled in a shot from close range for a perfect start and Washington beat the offside trap to double the score not long after Alexander Soderlund had rattled the crossbar for the Norwegians, who have now lost four of their opening five qualifiers. It was a disappointing debut for new Norway coach Lars Lagerback, who took Iceland through a fairytale performance at last year's European Championship in France. The Czech Republic are two points further back after trouncing San Marino 6-0. The Czechs had already beaten San Marino 7-0 on two previous occasions and they were on their way to another rout on Sunday by leading 5-0 at the break with four goals coming in a devastating eight-minute spell. Antonin Barak scored in the 17th and 24th minutes, sandwiching a Vladimir Darida strike. Full-back Theodor Gebre Selassie added the fourth after 25 minutes before Michal Krmencik made it 5-0 just before the interval. Darida hit the post twice in the closing moments of the first period but the Hertha Berlin midfielder was back on the scoresheet with a penalty after 77 minutes to make it 6-0. Poland extended their lead in Group E to six points after Robert Lewandowski and Lukasz Piszczek scored in a 2-1 win at Montenegro. The result left the Poles in charge midway through the campaign on 13 points from five games, six ahead of closest rivals Montenegro and Denmark, who were held 0-0 in Romania. Lewandowski curled home a superb 40th-minute free kick and, although Stefan Mugosa equalized just past the hour, Piszczek got the winner with a fine lob in the 82nd after the Poles missed a barrage of chances against their injury-hit opponents. Romania's goalless draw means Romania, still searching for their first home win in the qualifying campaign, have failed to score in four consecutive games for the first time since 1931. Romania visit Poland in their next group game on June 10 while Denmark travel to Kazakhstan. In the same pool, Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan was on target in Armenia's 2-0 win over Kazakhstan to keep up their hopes of taking the runners-up place. — Agencies
