After flare explodes next to Lewandowski, he scores two in Poland's win
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Poland took control of Group E with a 3-0 victory over Romania on Friday in a World Cup qualifier which was marred by crowd trouble at the National Arena Bucharest.
Poland's star striker, Robert Lewandowski, needed medical attention in the second half as he collapsed after a flare thrown in the 55th minute. The referee temporarily stopped the match and Lewandowski returned to the game several minutes later.
The first flares were thrown by the crowd immediately after kickoff.
Lewandowski had his own answer to the incident. He netted in the 82nd minute to double the Polish lead from inside the box and added his second in stoppage time from the spot. It was the ninth consecutive qualifier in which he had scored.
Kamil Grosicki scored 11 minutes into the game on a solo effort with a powerful blast into the top of the net.
With only the winner qualifying automatically, Poland jumped to the sole lead of Group E with 10 points, three more than Montenegro, which lost at Armenia 3-2.
Denmark trails by one more point after beating Kazakhstan 4-1 while Romania is another point behind. Armenia has three points, one more than Kazakhstan at the bottom.
Other matches in Group E:
DENMARK 4, KAZAKHSTAN 1
Denmark rebounded from a 1-0 home loss to Montenegro with a 4-1 victory over Kazakhstan.
Andreas Cornelius headed home to give Denmark a 1-0 lead in the 15th. Two minutes later, Gafurzhan Suyumbaev scored for the visitors to tie it at 1-1 with a left-footed shot.
Christian Eriksen restored the lead for Denmark from the penalty spot in the 36th before Peter Ankersen and again Eriksen sealed the victory with second-half goals.
ARMENIA 3, MONTENEGRO 2
Armenia rallied from two goals down to grab a late 3-2 win over Montenegro on Friday for its first points in qualifying.
Gevorg Ghazaryan struck more than three minutes into stoppage time in the dying seconds of the match with a long-range low shot from outside the area.
It was the first victory for Armenia in a competitive match since October 2013 after 12 winless efforts.
In the first half, Montenegro went 1-0 ahead in the 36th minute with a goal from Damir Kojasevic. Captain Stevan Jovetic needed just two minutes to double the lead for his sixth goal for his country in the last eight games, lobbing the ball over goalkeeper Arsen Beglaryan.
Artak Grigoryan reduced the lead to 2-1 five minutes after the interval on a solo effort that began in the middle of the field and was completed with a little bit of luck and help from Ruslan Koryan.
Varazdat Haroyan scored his first international goal to tie the match in the 73rd from close range.
