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German headers defeat Czechs

Kevin Kuranyi scored two goals on Saturday to put Germany in control of its European Championship qualifying group after a 2-1 victory at the Czech Republic, and Nicolas Anelka kept France on course with the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Lithuania.

Israel held struggling England to a 0-0 draw and European champion Greece lost its lead and tumbled 4-1 to visiting Turkey.

In a meeting of two clubs level on points at the top of Group D, Germany moved three ahead of the Czechs as Kuranyi scored with two headers in Prague. Milan Baros replied for the Czechs, who are now tied for second with Ireland, which edged Wales 1-0.

Not considered for last year's World Cup by France coach Raymond Domenech, Anelka scored a solo goal in the 73rd minute in Vilnius, dribbling through the middle and shooting in from outside the area.

The victory kept the World Cup runners-up level on points with Scotland at the top of Group B, while Ukraine moved ahead of idle Italy and into third place.

The Scots beat Georgia 2-1 at Hampden Park on Craig Beattie's 89th-minute goal and Ukraine posted a routine 2-0 victory at the Faeroe Islands with strikes by Volodymyr Yezerskiy in the 20th minute and Oleg Gusiev in the 57th.

The results mean that Italy now has five points to make up on Scotland and France and is two behind Ukraine. The World Cup champions will host Scotland on Wednesday.

England stays level on points with Israel but five behind group leader Croatia, which beat Macedonia 2-1, and three behind Russia, which won 2-0 at Estonia.

Croatia came from behind to defeat Macedonia, which went ahead through Goce Sedloski in the 38th minute. Darijo Srna equalized in 58th and, after Sedloski had been sent off for a second yellow card in the 68th, Eduardo da Silva scored Croatia's winner with two minutes to go.

Two goals in 12 second-half minutes by Alexander Kerzhakov gave Russia a 2-0 victory at Estonia.

Croatia now has 13 points, followed by Russia with 11, England and Israel with eight and Macedonia with seven.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos gave Greece a fifth-minute lead against the Turks in Athens, but the visitors hit back with strikes by Tuncay Sanli, Gorgkhan Unal, Tumer Metin and Gokdeniz Karadeniz and now lead the Group C standings by three points.

Poland jumped from third to the top of Group A with a 5-0 victory over Azerbaijan while Serbia was upset 2-1 at Kazakhstan.

Jacek Bak, Dariusz Dudka, Wojciech Lobodzinski, Jacek Krzynowek and Przemyslaw Kazmierczak each scored to give Poland its fourth consecutive qualifying victory, including wins over Group A rivals Portugal and Belgium.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals on Saturday to give Portugal a 4-0 win over Belgium in a European Championship qualifying match.

Ronaldo made it 2-0 in the 55th minute, two minutes after Nuno Gomes gave the hosts the lead. Ricardo Quaresma also scored.

"We created lots of opportunities in the first half but failed to score, and in the second we showed more guts and were fortunate to net goals in the first minutes," Ronaldo said.

Kairat Ashirbekov scored in the 47th minute. Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev tallied in the 61st to put Kazakhstan ahead in Almaty before Nikola Zigic replied in the 68th.

Zigic was sent off in injury time as the Serbs slipped to third.

The Netherlands stayed at the top of Group G despite being held to a 0-0 draw by visiting Romania.

The Dutch have 11 points from five games, Bulgaria and Romania are level on eight points.

Belarus has seven after a 2-1 victory at Luxembourg.

David Healy scored his second Group F hat trick in Northern Ireland's 4-1 victory at Liechtenstein, having also scored three times in a 3-2 victory over Spain on Sept. 6.

The win gives Lawrie Sanchez and his team 10 points from five games, only two fewer than group leader Sweden, which doesn't have a game until it goes to Belfast on Wednesday.

England misfires

England is in the midst of its worst scoring run for more than a quarter of a century, and it could keep them from qualifying for the European Championship.

England failed to win or score for the third straight game, and the pressure is building on coach Steve McClaren.

"Disappointed, frustrated," said McClaren, whose team has scored only once in five games, the worst run since 1981.

"To dominate the game like that, to have the chances that we did and not to score, it's disappointing and not good enough. We should have won that game."

The 4,000 traveling England fans taunted McClaren by chanting: "You don't know what you're doing."

"We got balls in the box. We got shots on target. Either it didn't fall for us or poor quality, poor finishing, poor decisions has cost us," McClaren said.

"It's two points we dropped there. We should have won that," he said.

But Israel did well to stifle the talented England forwards.

"Certainly this was the tactical preparation we know the England players are very fast and strong," Israel coach Dror Kashtan said. "We had to be well prepared for that and adjust accordingly."

"There's no doubt the English have some outstanding players who are clearly at a high level," he said. "It was part of our tactics to make sure their main players don't reach any goalscoring opportunities and have any influence on the outcome of the game."

Midway through the first half, Israel goalkeeper Dudu Awat made a one-handed catch from a Wayne Rooney header and then dived at the feet of Frank Lampard to smother the ball.
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