Slovenia ease past San Marino

Slovenia cruised to a comfortable 6-0 victory over San Marino in their Euro 2016 qualifier at the Stozice Stadium on Friday night.

A mad three-minute spell at the beginning of the second half saw three of the hosts' goals find the net thanks to Kevin Kampl, Andraz Struna and Milivoje Novakovic after Josip Ilicic handed them an early lead, while Dejan Lazarevic and Branko Ilic finished the rout.

San Marino had goalkeeper Giacomo Benedettini to thank for holding out many more Slovenia chances as the Group E minnows remain bottom of the table with one point from five matches, while the hosts remain second, six points behind leaders England.

The hosts started strong and Kampl was the first to test Benedettini in the opening exchanges, but his close-range effort was held out before Ilicic tried his luck and Benedettini was well placed to block his shot.

San Marino had a chance of their own to open the scoring five minutes in but home stopper Samir Handanovic comfortably held out Mirko Palazzi's attempt.

Slovenia got off the mark after 10 minutes as Fiorentina midfielder Ilicic slotted Valter Birsa's cross into the bottom corner from 12 yards out.

It would still be 1-0 half an hour later, although not for a lack of trying from Slovenia.

Bostjan Cesar struck the crossbar, while Benedettini made saves from Birsa, Andraz Krim, Miso Brecko, Kampl and Novakovic as the barrage continued.

Three minutes after the break, the hosts netted the first of three quick-fire goals as Kampl opened the floodgates, curling the ball into the bottom corner beautifully from the edge of the box.

Novakovic provided the cross for Slovenia's third goal - a minute later - as he picked out Struna and the latter made no mistake as he slotted home from close-range, while Struna turned provider moments later as his cross found Novakovic, whose header beat Benedettini in the centre of the six-yard box.

The away side looked down and out, but Andy Selva came close to pulling one back for the Grouo E strugglers before he sent his header wide.

Slovenia were looking for a fifth and that finally came after 73 minutes as second-half substitute Lazarevic made a great run past a number of San Marino defenders and fired home from the edge of the six-yard box, slotting into the far corner with a cool finish to make it 5-0.

They were not through yet and Ilic added his name to the scoresheet as he headed home from Birsa's corner with two minutes remaining.