—-Germany and Netherlands are both on the brink of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals after the alatest European qualifying matchday.

The Germans had Nick Woltemade to thank for the two goals with which the four-time world champions achieved a hard-earned 2-0 win over Luxembourg in their penultimate tie.

Woltemade, who has scored his team’s last three goals after also netting the winner in their 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland last month, put the visitors in front in the 49th minute. He slid in to connect with a Leroy Sane cutback with the Germans surprisingly on the backfoot for much of the first half.

The Newcastle striker added another in the 69th minute to keep Germany top of Group A on 12 points, with Slovakia, their next opponents on Monday, in second place on goal difference.

In Group G Netherlands kept up their three-point advantage over Poland after a 1-1 draw left the Dutch a point away from qualification.

Jakub Kaminski handed Poland a halftime lead as they needed victory to keep alive slim hopes of topping Group G and securing automatic qualification for next year’s finals.

Memphis Depay replied for the visitors at Stadion Narodowy shortly after the break to ensure the Dutch moved to 17 points with Poland second in the group standings on 14.

The Netherlands need only draw at home to bottom-placed Lithuania in their last fixture in Amsterdam on Monday to book their World Cup berth.

Virgil van Dijk marked his 71st game as Netherlands captain, equalling Frank de Boer’s record. The defender said it had been a hard evening’s work, “especially against a low block we could not create a lot of clear chances.”

With Finland having suffered a surprise loss at home to Malta earlier on Friday, the Netherlands and Poland are guaranteed to finish in the top two places in the group.

Poland can now only win the group with a goal deluge away in Malta if the Dutch lose to Lithuania at the same time. The runners-up in the group advance to the European playoff in March.

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