BERLIN (Xinhua) - Germany reaped their eighth win after cruising Liechtenstein 9-0 at the FIFA World Cup qualifying round in Group J at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg on Thursday.
Underdog Liechtenstein caught the worst possible start against already qualified Germany as Jens Hofer fouled Leon Goretzka inside the box to cause a penalty with nine minutes gone. Ilkay Gundogan stepped up and made no mistake to break the deadlock.
Germany pressed and benefitted on their numerical advantage as Liechtenstein’s Daniel Kaufmann cleared Christian Gunter’s cutback pass into the own goal on 20 minutes.
The hosts made it three only moments later as Leroy Sane made use of a through ball from Goretzka before unleashing a well-placed shot into the far post corner.
Although Hansi Flick’s men had confirmed their slot at Qatar 2022, they pressed forward and made it 4-0 on the scoreboards in the 23rd minute when Marco Reus collected a loose ball before tapping home into the empty goal.
Liechtenstein couldn’t put up resistance, whereas relentless German increased the pressure after the restart as Sane wrapped up his brace in the 48th by courtesy of Reus’s good build-up work.
The hosts still were not done with the scoring and remained on the front foot as Liechtenstein couldn’t clear a corner allowing Thomas Muller to tap home a rebound from close range to make it six with 76 minutes into the game.
Muller wrapped his brace six minutes later before Maximilian Goppel rounded off the 9-0 rout with an own goal in the dying minutes of the game.
With the result, Germany head coach Hansi Flick maintains his perfect record with six wins from six games.
Germany stay first in Group J, followed by North Macedonia, Romania, Armenia, Iceland and winless Liechtenstein.