Ribery fires France to victory in Lithuania

France kept their World Cup qualifying hopes alive when a Franck Ribery goal earned them a 1-0 win away to Lithuania yesterday.

Midfielder Ribery found the back of the net in the 67th minute with a powerful 20-metre drive after being set up by playmaker Yoann Gourcuff.

France, who have a game in hand, remain third in Group Seven with seven points from four matches, two points behind second-placed Lithuania, who meet the French again in Paris on Wednesday.

Serbia, 3-2 winners in Romania, lead the group with 12 points from five matches.

"This win is very important for us. We all had a good match. We fought on a bad pitch," Ribery told French TV channel TF1.

"We must go on. It was hard but we did our best. We have to do it again on Wednesday at the Stade de France.

"We had so many chances, we wanted this goal very badly."

Coach Raymond Domenech added: "We are happy, of course, but we bear in mind that we have another game coming on Wednesday."

Serbia's victory was marred by crowd trouble as Romania suffered their first defeat in the Black Sea resort of Constanta after strikes from Milan Jovanovic and Branislav Ivanovic and an own goal from Dorel Stoica, who also scored at the other end.

Jovanovic swept in a rebound in the 18th minute after Milos Krasic had hit the post.

Stoica then put through his own net following a 44th-minute corner before Ciprian Marica pulled a goal back for Romania with a delightful lob five minutes into the second period.

Ivanovic restored Serbia's two-goal lead with an acrobatic close-range volley.

Stoica replied for the home team by turning in an Adrian Mutu free-kick in the 74th minute.

Television images showed Serbian fans lighting flares and clashing with riot police after Jovanovic's goal.

"We arrested seven supporters while the game was in progress," a policeman told Romanian television.

Headed goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie in the first half set Netherlands on their way to a comfortable 3-0 win over Scotland in Group Nine.

The Dutch made a hesitant start to the match against the injury-depleted Scots but, inspired by a sensational Arjen Robben, opened the scoring through Huntelaar who headed home a fine cross from Mark van Bommel.

On the stroke of half-time, Van Persie doubled the lead when he headed in Robben's corner and 13 minutes from time Kuyt added a third with a penalty after Christophe Berra fouled Huntelaar.

Netherlands lead the group with 12 points from four matches, eight points ahead of Iceland and Scotland. The Dutch are at home to Macedonia on Wednesday when the Scots host Iceland.

Germany stayed top of the World Cup Group Four qualifying table by destroying Liechtenstein 4-0.

Captain Michael Ballack and Marcell Jansen scored inside the first eight minutes before Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski completed the rout early in the second half.

Germany, who also missed a host of chances, have 13 points from five matches. Russia are second on nine points and have a game in hand.