Robert Lewandowski guides Poland to win in Romania

Robert Lewandowski scored twice for Poland but he is likely to remember the 3-0 World Cup qualifying win in Romania for a different reason.

Play was held up in the 54th minute when the Bayern Munich striker collapsed in his own penalty area after a firecracker thrown onto the pitch exploded a metre away from him.

After a lengthy delay Lewandowski was free to continue and he sealed Poland's victory with two late goals.

The visitors started well and took an early lead when Kamil Grosicki, who had seen a shot saved by goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu a minute earlier, fired into the roof of the net from Artur Jedrzejczyk's pass.

Romania came back into it as the half progressed and came close to an equaliser on the half-hour when a Nicolae Stanciu free-kick picked out former Tottenham defender Vlad Chiriches but his shot was superbly saved by Lukasz Fabianski.

Jakub Blaszczykowski was denied by Tatarusanu and Grosicki was tackled at the end of a strong run as Poland finished the half strongly.

Romania made a double change for the start of the second half, with Florin Andone and Andrei Prepelita replacing Adrian Popa and Ovidiu Hoban.

They combined shortly after the resumption following Lewandowski's injury, but Andone's low shot was well held by Fabianski.

Goalscorer Grosicki forced another decent stop from Tatarusanu before Lewandowski doubled Poland's advantage, racing through the middle and firing a shot into the bottom corner.

The prolific striker added a third from the penalty spot after he was fouled by Dragos Grigore to send Adam Nawalka's men to the top of Group E.