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England on track, Germany stumble

AFP, Paris
England did the bare minimum on Saturday in beating tiny Liechtenstein 2-0 to stay in the hunt for a place in the finals of Euro 2004.
Goals in either half from Michael Owen and David Beckham just about disguised a patchy showing which left coach Sven-Goran Eriksson admitting that luck was on his men's side as they cut the gap on Group Seven leaders Turkey to two points.
Next Wednesday's home encounter with the Turks at Sunderland will now go a long way to deciding who wins the group and gains an automatic ticket to the finals in Portugal.
"At least we got the three points. There was maybe a bit of a lack of concentration towards the end of the game. We gave them a couple of chances," Eriksson had to concede afterwards after his side won through with Owen's header on the half hour and Beckham's trademark freekick on 53 minutes.
Rampant Wales earlier had a much smoother ride as Mark Hughes's side made it four wins out of four by crushing Azerbaijan 4-0 in Cardiff.
France were in equally dynamite form, crushing Malta 6-0 to top group one with a maximum 12 points, a double from stand-in skipper Zinedine Zidane helping the reigning champions on their way.
But World Cup runners-up Germany had a night to forget, being held 1-1 at home by Lithuania in group five, which cost them top spot to Scotland, 2-1 winners over Iceland, on goal difference.
Wales opened the scoring after just 13 seconds.
Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy, in hot water for an alleged assault on an Asian nightclub doorman, took the advice of Hughes and club manager Sir Bobby Robson to channel his aggression in more positive fashion, his effort going in off visiting skipper Tarlan Akhmedov.
Bellamy's clubmate Gary Speed headed the second on 40 minutes after Mark Pembridge whipped in the cross and Celtic's in-form John Hartson headed in the third seconds before the break from a Ryan Giggs cross.
Manchester United winger Giggs netted the fourth himself seven minutes after the restart.
"We had to get the job done in Cardiff and we have done," Hughes told BBC Wales after his side extended their record unbeaten run to 10 games.
The side must now wait until August to resume their Group Nine campaign away to Serbia-Montenegro, Wednesday's date having been postponed owing to political unrest.
While England huffed and puffed in the Alps and Wales breathed fire the Republic of Ireland bounced back from losing their opening two qualifiers with a 2-1 win in Georgia.
An 85th-minute goal from Gary Doherty gave new coach Brian Kerr, replacing Mick McCarthy, a winning competitive start to his tenure.
Damien Duff put the Irish ahead before the break but the boys in green were living dangerously when Levan Kobiashvili levelled.
However, Doherty's winner ensured the Irish can still live in hope of reaching next summer's finals although they still trail Group Ten leaders Switzerland by four points.
The Irish are still three points adrift of Russia, who slumped to a surprise 3-1 loss in Albania - leaving the latter a point clear of Kerr's side in third place.
Northern Irish eyes weren't smiling after Sammy McIlroy's team lost a Group Six encounter 10 in Armenia to all but snuff out their chances of qualification.
The Northern Irish have now failed to score in seven games and succumbed to their fate when Artur Petrosyan scored the only goal three minutes from time.
Ukraine drew 2-2 with table toppers Spain.
Scotland, meanwhile, showed they intend to push Germany all
the way in Group Five after a Lee Wilkie header gave them a 2-1 success at Hampden Park over Iceland.
Wilkie headed in Paul Devlin's cross to clinch the win after Chelsea forward Eidur Gudjohnsen had cancelled out Kenny Miller's early opener.
The Scots, who dropped points in an earlier embarrassing draw with the Faroe Islands, made it seven points from three matches -level with the Germans who could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Lithuania on Saturday night.
Scotland's German coach Berti Vogts said following the first win at Hampden Park in a competitive fixture of his reign that it looked in all probability as if his men were headed for the playoffs.
"We are looking for a playoff place - but this was a good result. Iceland gave us a hard time."
With Zidane standing in for the injured Marcel Desailly as captain defending champions France impressed albeit against bottom of the table Malta.
Zidane notched a double, one a penalty the other a header. Thierry Henry was in double form too, with Sylvain Wiltord and David Trezeguet also getting in on the act.
In group three Holland's 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic left the pair equal on seven points, although the Dutch, who had Ruud van Nistelrooy to thank for their only goal, have better goal difference.
And Italy gave themselves a boost with a 2-0 win over Finland, the goals coming from Christian Vieiri, to put them second in group nine to Wales.
Groups two, four and eight meanwhile are being headed by Denmark, Latvia and Bulgaria respectively.