LONDON: England striker Jermain Defoe made a scoring return to the international stage and substitute Jamie Vardy added a second goal as the hosts laboured to a 2-0 victory over Lithuania in World Cup qualifying Group F yesterday.
Veteran Defoe, making his first appearance for nearly 3-1/2 years, fired lacklustre England ahead in the 21st minute at Wembley but Gareth Southgate’s team struggled to finish off a Lithuania side who are 93 places lower in the Fifa rankings.
England survived a couple of worrying moments and had to wait until the 66th minute to double their lead when Defoe’s replacement Vardy finished neatly shortly after coming on.
It was hardly an emphatic performance but the result kept England top of Group F with 13 points from five games.
England’s plodding pace allowed Lithuania a relatively comfortable opening 20 minutes on a balmy afternoon.
England completely dominated possession but barely tested Ernestas Setkus’s goal as their passing lacked pace.
Defending champions 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 who 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 equaliser to the delight of the home crowd before Joachim Loew’s team stepped on the accelerator.
At Serraville, the Czech Republic trounced San Marino 6-0 to move in to second place in Group C, seven points behind Germany.
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.
Poland extended their lead in Group E to six points after Robert Lewandowski and Lukasz Piszczek scored in a 2-1 win at Montenegro.
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.