adminPARIS. — World soccer champions Germany stumbled again in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign on Tuesday, drawing 1-1 with the Republic of Ireland on a night where Cristiano Ronaldo and a flying drone made headlines elsewhere. Ronaldo’s late header gave Portugal a 1-0 win in Denmark to kick-start their qualifying campaign, but the meeting between Serbia and Albania in the same Group I was abandoned after crowd trouble in Belgrade.
Germany had suffered their first qualifying defeat since 2007 at the weekend, losing 2-0 in Poland in Group D, but the World Cup winners were greeted by a huge fan mosaic at one end of the stadium in Gelsenkirchen which read simply “Thank You”, proving that such a defeat could not overshadow their heroics of July.
Nevertheless, only five of the players who started in the win against Argentina in Rio de Janeiro three months ago lined up at kick-off against Martin O’Neill’s men. Borussia Dortmund’s Erik Durm, who went to the World Cup but did not play, smashed a shot off the bar in the first half before a precise Toni Kroos strike in the 71st minute gave Joachim Loew’s men the lead. — AFP.
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