Slovenia see off Luxembourg

Slovenia struck twice in the first half in Celje to sink luckless Luxembourg and claim their first points of the qualifying campaign.

Dominance
Milivoje Novakovič and Robert Koren got the goals which underlined Slovenia's dominance, before a quiet second half allowed the hosts to canter to the win which takes Branko Oblak's side off the foot of the Group G table at the expense of tonight's opponents. Slovenia had started their campaign with a 3-0 reverse in Bulgaria last month, while Luxembourg began with a creditable 1-0 defeat by the Netherlands.

Procession
The closest the visitors came to a goal this evening was Aurelien Joachim's wide drive from distance on 16 minutes, and his weak header five minutes later. The rest of the game was a procession. Nastja Čeh narrowly failed to get the ball rolling within two minutes and Klemen Lavrič should have done better with a header six minutes later. Novakovič offered a warning of things to come when his 16th-minute strike grazed the upright while he also stung Jonathan Joubert's palms eight minutes later. Luxembourg, however, had exhausted all their luck by the 30th minute.

Woodwork rattled
Branko Ilič swung in a cross from the right and Novakovič connected with a thumping header from 12 metres to give the hosts the advantage. Lavrič then rattled the woodwork with his angled attempt, before Koren made certain of the points with a spectacular long-range effort a minute before half-time. Novakovič and Koren had opportunities to extend their tallies in the second half, while René Peters sought to inspire a Luxembourg comeback, but no more goals were forthcoming. Slovenia go to Belarus on Wednesday night, the same night that Luxembourg receive Bulgaria.