Battling wins for the Dutch & Germans

Wales salvages a point against Czech Republic

The equaliser: Daniel James, left, scores Wales’ second against the Czech Republic.

Germany needed a late winner from Thomas Muller to beat Romania 2-1 while the Netherlands eked out a 1-0 win in Latvia to stay on course for the World Cup finals on Friday.

In Group E, Aaron Ramsey and Daniel James inspired Wales to a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic in Prague.

Both teams have eight points in the fight for the second spot in Group E, trailing runaway leader Belgium with 16, but Wales has a game in hand.

The results: Group E: Estonia 2 (Sorga 58, Zenjov 90+3) bt Belarus 0; Czech Republic 2 (Pesek 38, Ward 48-og) drew with Wales 2 (Ramsey 36, James 69).

Group G: Gibraltar 0 lost to Montenegro 3 (Marusic 7, Beciraj 44-pen, 68); Latvia 0 lost to the Netherlands 1 (Klaasen 19); Turkey 1 (Akturkoglu 6) drew with Norway 1 (Thorstvedt 41).

Group H: Cyprus 0 lost to Croatia 3 (Perisic 45+2, Gvardiol 80, Livaja 90+2); Malta 0 lost to Slovenia 4 (Ilicic 27, 60, Sporar 50, Sesko 67); Russia 1 (Skriniar 24-og) bt Slovakia 0.

Group J: Germany 2 (Gnabry 52, Muller 81) bt Romania 1 (Hagi 9); Iceland 1 (Johanesson 77) drew with Armenia 1 (Hovhannisyan 35); Liechtenstein 0 lost to North Macedonia 4 (Velkovski 39, Alioski 66-pen, Nikolov 74, Churlinov 83) .