Group D: The Republic of Ireland's task of emerging from Group D of the Euro 2008 qualifiers got that little bit more difficult this evening as Germany walloped San Marino and the Czech Republic beat near neighbours Slovakia.
Both were away wins and the 13-0 German victory over hapless San Marino does wonders for their goal difference which could well prove vital come the end of the campaign.
Lukas Podolski did the damage early on for Germany with a hat-trick in the first half. Michael Ballack added another and Miroslav Klose grabbed a brace to set the tone for the second half.
Bastien Schweinsteiger opened the scoring after the break before Podolski and Thomas Hitzlsperger scored two each.
Right back Manuel Friedrich and midfielder Bernd Schneider completed the rout.
Earlier this evening Libor Sionko scored twice and set up the third goal to lead the Czech Republic to a 3-0 victory over Slovakia.
Sionko put the visitors ahead after 10 minutes when he headed home a left-wing cross from Marek Jankulovski just seconds after he had struck the woodwork.
The agile midfielder scored again 11 minutes later with a low shot into the left-hand corner from Jan Koller's pass.
The Czechs comfortably controlled the match and had several more scoring opportunities. Koller made it 3-0 for the 2004 Euro semi-finalists in the 57th minute, driving home Sionko's low pass from close range after Tomas Rosicky's clever low free kick through the Slovak defence.
