Slick Germans cement lead at the summit

Germany 4 Kazakhstan 1

Marco Reus was on target twice with Mario Gotze and Ilkay Gundogan also scoring for Joachim Low’s men.

Heinrich Schmidtgal scored a consolation for the visitors, who caused Germany an unexpectedly high number of problems in the second half, leaving Low with plenty to ponder.

Like in Astana last Friday, the Germans initially struggled to break down the Kazakhstan defence, but two quick-fire goals then opened the floodgates.

It took Germany 21 minutes to open their account away from home with the second goal arriving a minute later.

In the very same minutes in Nuremberg, they hit the woodwork through Gundogan and Gotze before, a minute later, Reus opened the scoring.

Four minutes later, a marauding run from Philipp Lahm culminated in the Bayern Munich full-back pulling the ball across to Gotze, who diverted the ball into an unguarded goal.

Another four minutes were required for Germany to make it three and equal Friday’s scoreline with Gundogan, who had also hit the crossbar, making it third time lucky in his former home stadium.

Mesut Ozil was the provider for the Dortmund midfielder’s first goal for Germany, which he tucked home from just six yards.

Reus added a fourth goal in the last minute.

GERMANY: Neuer Schmelzer, Boateng, Mertesacker, Lahm, Khedira, Ozil, Muller, Gundogan, Reus, Gotze.

KAZAKHSTAN: Sidelnikov, Kirov, Korobkin, Mukhtarov, Engel, Gurman, Nurdauletov, Dmitrenko, Konysbayev, Schmidtgal, Ostapenko.

Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)