Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick in Poland’s 6-1 win over Armenia on his way to becoming his country’s leading scorer.

Within the space of seven first-half minutes in Yerevan, the Bayern Munich forward equalled and then surpassed Wlodzimierz Lubanski’s tally of 48 before reaching a half-century for Poland when he completed his treble midway through the second half.

His 64th-minute strike was his 15th in Group E, a record for a single European qualifying campaign, although Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is close with 14.

Kamil Grosicki, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Rafal Wolski scored the others to put Poland on the verge of World Cup qualification, with Hovhannes Hambardzumyan briefly making it 3-1 just before the break.

Denmark kept alive their hopes of clinching automatic qualification and boosted their play-off chances after a superb goal by midfielder Christian Eriksen gave them a 1-0 win in Montenegro on Thursday.

Martin Linnes makes it eight for Norway in San Marino. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters

The result left the Danes second on 19 points from nine games, three behind Poland and three ahead of third-placed Montenegro, who now have only a slim chance of finishing as the group’s runners-up.

Denmark are at home to eliminated Romania, who beat Kazakhstan 3-1, in their final game on Sunday. Poland are at home to Montenegro knowing that they will go through automatically with a draw.

In Group C, Norway earned just their third qualifying victory in emphatic style, beating San Marino 8-0 in Serravalle. Bournemouth’s Josh King scored twice and Basel forward Mohamed Elyounoussi went one better with a hat-trick.

In Thursday’s other matches, Antonin Barak’s late goal helped Czech Republic defeat Azerbaijan 2-1 in Baku, while Malta picked up their first point in Group F after a 1-1 draw with Lithuania.