Austria beats Azerbaijan in qualifying

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Martin Stranzl and Roland Kollman scored first half goals to give Austria a 2-0 win over lowly Azerbaijan in their World Cup qualifier Wednesday and the lead in European Group 6.

The Austrians are off to the best start to a qualifying campaign in years, after holding England to a 2-2 draw last weekend.

Playing in front of a crowd of 26,400, the hosts dominated the clash from kickoff and went ahead after 22 minutes when Martin Stranzl headed a cross from Mario Haas onto the post and, reacting fast, tapped in the rebound.

"It was a big relief for the team and myself personally," Stranzl said after the game, referring to a crucial moment in the match against England, when a backpass of his resulted in a free kick that gave Sven Goran Eriksson's team the lead.

Two minutes from halftime Roland Kollmann could have doubled the lead, but failed to head Andreas Ivanschitz' cross into an empty net.

Only seconds later though, Kollmann made up for his miss and hammered a low ball from Emanuel Pogatetz into the goal.

Haas could have decided the clash early, but alone in front of Azerbaijan keeper Dmitri Kramarenko put the ball wide.

Austria kept up the pressure in the second half, but Azerbaijan had a clean scoring opportunity when an Ilgan Gurbanov shot forced goalie Alex Manninger to make a fingertip save following a rare counterattack.

"We played a great game. The only weak spot, if there was any, was our scoring ability. We had 17 shots on target and that should normally bring more than two goals," head coach Hans Krankl said.

"Nonetheless, we are more than happy about our start into the campaign and proud to lead the standings," he added.

Austria has four points out from two games and a better goal difference than England, which beat Poland 2-1 earlier Wednesday.

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Lineups:

Austria: Alex Manninger; Emanuel Pogatetz, Martin Hiden, Martin Stranzl, Joachim Standfest; Markus Schopp (57. Matthias Dollinger), Rene Aufhauser, Dietmar Kuehbauer, Andreas Ivanschitz; Roland Kollmann (79. Roland Linz), Mario Haas (72. Edi Glieder).

Azerbaijan: Dmitri Kramarenko; Aftandil Hajiev, Rashad Sadygov, Emin Agaev, Mahir Shukurov; Aslan Kerimov, Makhmud Gurbanov (46. Jamal Mammadov), Anatoli Ponomarev (46. Nadir Nabiev), Romal Guseynov; Gurban Gurbanov, Samir Aliev (46. Ilgar Gurbanov).

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