Two for Klose as Germany sound warning

STRIKER Miroslav Klose scored twice as Germany warmed up for their crunch clash with the Republic of Ireland next month with a 3-0 victory over Sweden at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen last night.

It gave manager Joachim Low the perfect start to the post-Jurgen Klinsmann era — and fired a warning to Ireland manager Steve Staunton ahead of the pair’s meeting in Stuttgart on September 2.

Germany were missing injured central defenders Christoph Metzelder and Per Mertesacker, as well as Chelsea star Michael Ballack but it seemed to matter little.

Bernd Schneider gave the Germans a fourth minute lead before Klose scored in the eighth and 44th minutes.

The news wasn’t so good for one of Ireland’s other group rivals. The Czech Republic went down 3-1 at home to Serbia & Montenegro in Pavel Nedved’s farewell appearance.

Jan Stajner gave the Czechs an early lead before goals from Lazovic, Pantelic and Trisovic eased Serbia to victory.

Goals from David Healy and substitute Kyle Lafferty gave Northern Ireland victory over Finland in Helsinki.

It was a major boost for manager Lawrie Sanchez ahead of the opening Euro 2008 qualifier against Iceland next month.

Healy made it 20 goals in 50 international appearances and 18 year-old Burnley striker Lafferty extended the lead in the second half before Mika Vayrynen pulled one back for Finland.

Italy were beaten 2-0 by Croatia in Leghorn in their first match since winning the World Cup.

Goals from Da Silva Eduardo (28) and Luka Modric (42) saw new Italian boss Roberto Donadoni slump to defeat in his first game in charge.

William Gallas and Julien Faubert were on target as Raymond Domenech’s France began the post-Zidane era with a 2-1 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Elsewhere, qualifying for Euro 2008 got underway as Macedonia beat Estonia in the first game in Group E, a group which also includes England.

Goce Sedloski scored the only goal of the game in the 73rd minute.

In Group B, Georgia scored a crushing 6-0 win against the Faroe Islands, with Shota Arveladze netting a hat-trick.

Belgium were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Kazakhstan in Group A.

Elsewhere, new Brazil boss Dunga was unable to succeed where all his predecessors have failed as his debut on the Brazil bench ended in a 1-1 draw with Norway.

A Morten Gamst Pedersen free-kick gave Norway a 6th-minute lead but 11 minutes later Daniel Carvalho marked his debut with the equaliser.