Slovakia extend lead with Belarus victory

Marek Hamsik scored twice as Slovakia left it late to record a 3-1 win over Belarus and extend their lead at the top of Group C in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

Egor Filipenko went close for Belarus shortly before the half-hour mark when he sent his right-footed effort over the bar.

© Getty Images

Maksim Bordachev was next to try his luck for the home side, but he could only draw a save from Matus Kozacik after good work from Sergei Balanovich in the build-up.

Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel went close with a header on the hour mark, but the Slovakian couldn't keep his effort down.

Napoli star Hamsik opened the scoring shortly after Skrtel's miss when he smashed an effort into the top corner after Vladimir Weiss had teed his teammate up.

However, Belarus were back in it with 12 minutes to go when Timofei Kalachev converted Stanislav Dragun's cross to even things up.

Hamsik struck with eight minutes remaining before Stanislav Sestak netted in stoppage time to extend the Slovaks' lead at the top of Group C.