Schweinsteiger, Klose on song for Germany

Germany opened a four-point gap at the top of their World Cup qualifying group after goals by Bastian Schweinsteiger and Miroslav Klose sealed Germany’s 2-0 win at minnows Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

Joachim Loew’s side remain unbeaten and are favourites to claim the group four’s single guaranteed place for the finals in South Africa, but the matter is likely to be decided when they face main rivals Russia in Moscow on October 14.

Bayern Munich midfielder Schweinsteiger opened the scoring after just 12 minutes when he received the ball just outside the penalty area and rifled his shot home from 30 metres.

Germany were rarely tested and they doubled their lead just after the break when Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez smashed a shot at the Azerbaijan goalkeeper Farhad Veliyev and Klose headed the rebound into the empty net.

It made up for his first-half miss when the Bayern Munich stalwart drove his header over the bar with an empty net at his mercy.

Azerbaijan, coached by ex-Germany boss Bertie Vogts, had precious few chances to score in the second-half as the German defence, led by Bayern’s Philipp Lahm, closed down their opponents’ attack.

Russia have the chance to close the gap back to a single point when they face minnows Liechtenstein in St Peterburg on September 5.