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Paris. — Jerome Boateng scored his first international goal to set Germany on their way to a 3-0 win against Slovakia at Euro 2016 yesterday as the world champions cruised into the quarter-finals.

Boateng opened his account eight minutes into his 63rd international appearance and Joachim Loew’s side never looked back against outclassed opponents. Mesut Ozil had a penalty saved soon after but Julian Draxler set up Mario Gomez to double the lead two minutes before half-time and the impressive Draxler then completed the scoring just after the hour mark. There was never any threat of a repeat of Slovakia’s 3-1 win when the teams met in a friendly just four weeks ago and Germany move on to a last-eight tie against either reigning champions Spain or old rivals Italy next weekend.

Loew had been unhappy with his team’s finishing during the group stage and he opted to drop the underperforming Mario Goetze as Draxler, of Wolfsburg, started in the only change from their 1-0 win against Northern Ireland. — AFP.