Sane, Reus seal routine win for Germany

Borisov, Agencies: Germany eased past hosts Belarus 2-0 with goals from Leroy Sane and Marco Reus on Saturday to make it two wins from their first two Euro 2020 Group C qualifiers.

The three-time European champions, who suffered a shock World Cup first-round exit last year before being relegated in the inaugural Nations League, were desperate to build on their opening qualifying win over Netherlands in March.

They took a 13th-minute lead when Sane shook off his marker and fired in from close range.

Belarus responded by forcing a fine save from Manuel Neuer, who punched Nikita Naumov's 30th-minute header over the bar for the hosts' best chance in the game.

The visitors struck again with Reus in the 62nd minute after a clever assist from Matthias Ginter and hit the post through Sane's 84th-minute header.

The result lifted the Germans to six points, three behind leaders Northern Ireland who beat Estonia 2-1 for their third win in three qualifiers. Belarus suffered their third straight loss and are in last place, having scored only one goal.

Meanwhile, World champions France slumped to a 2-0 loss to Turkey amid a red-hot atmosphere in Konya.

Kaan Ayhan headed Turkey ahead on the half-hour mark and Cengiz Under fired in a second before half-time to give the hosts a first ever win over France.

Didier Deschamps fielded nine of the players that started last year's World Cup final but France struggled to create chances, while Hugo Lloris denied Turkey on a number of occasions.

"That was a slap in the face for us and there's not a lot I can say," Deschamps told TF1. "We have a different challenge on Tuesday and I have to say well done to Turkey. We need to get back to basics.

Victory pushed Turkey three points clear of France at the top of Group H after Senol Gunes' side won for the third time in as many outings.

In Athens, Italy crushed Greece 3-0 to notch up their third win in as many games and pull three points clear at the top group.

Nicolo Barella opened the scoring after 23 minutes with Lorenzo Insigne and Leonardo Bonucci adding two more in a 10-minute blitz which followed.

Roberto Mancini's side have now scored a total of 11 goals and none conceded in their three Group J qualifiers.

Results: Group C: Estonia: 1 (Vassiljev 25) lt to Northern Ireland: 2 (Washington 77, Magennis 80); Belarus: 0 lt to Germany: 2 (Sane 13, Reus 62).

Group E: Croatia: 2 (Lawrence 17-og, Perisic 48) bt Wales: 1 (Brooks 77); Azerbaijan: 1 (Emreli 69) lt to Hungary: 3 (Orban 18, 53, Holman 71).

Group H: Iceland: 1 (Gudmundsson 22) bt Albania: 0; Turkey: 2 (Ayhan 30, Under 40) bt France: 0; Moldova: 1 (Armas 8) th Andorra: 0.

Group I: Russia: 9 (Cevoli 25-og, 41-og, Dzyuba 31-pen, 73, 76, 88, Kudryashov 36, Smolov 77, 83) bt San Marino: 0; Belgium: 3 (Mertens 11, Castagne 14, R. Lukaku 50) bt Kazakhstan: 0; Scotland: 2 (Robertson 61, Burke 89) bt Cyprus: 1 (Kousoulos 87).

Group J: Finland: 2 (Pukki 56, 68) bt Bosnia-Herzegovina: 0; Armenia: 3 (Ghazaryan 2, Karapetyan 18, Barseghyan 90+1) bt Liechtenstein: 0; Greece: 0 lt to Italy: 3 (Barella 24, Insigne 30, Bonucci 33).