Euro qualifiers: Centurion Rooney scores as England beats Slovenia; easy win for Spain
Euro qualifiers: Centurion Rooney scores as England beats Slovenia; easy win for Spain
Wayne Rooney celebrated his 100th appearance for England by scoring in a 3-1 win over Slovenia, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted in his return for Sweden.

London: Wayne Rooney celebrated his 100th appearance for England by scoring in a 3-1 win over Slovenia, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted in his return for Sweden in a 1-1 draw at Montenegro in European Championship qualifiers on Saturday.

Beside England's fourth win in as many games, Group E also saw San Marino end their streak of 61 losses by drawing 0-0 against Estonia.

Defending champion Spain eased to a 3-0 win at home over Belarus, but Slovakia remained top of Group C with a 2-0 win at Macedonia. Austria strengthened their hold on Group G after beating Russia 1-0, with Sweden four points back.

Ibrahimovic, who missed two qualifiers in a seven-week injury layoff, scored in the ninth and hit the post later before Montenegro's Stefan Jovetic leveled from the penalty spot in the 80th.

GROUP E

On a history-making day, Rooney earned and scored the penalty kick a minute after the visitors took the 58th-minute lead from Jordan Henderson's own goal.

Danny Welbeck scored twice in the 66th and 72nd, giving him five in the campaign, to complete the win.

San Marino, the world's lowest-ranked team, got their first ever point in European Championship qualifying after holding out against Estonia at home.

England surged six points clear of Slovenia, Switzerland and Lithuania. Estonia have four points while San Marino stayed last.

The Swiss beat visiting Lithuania 4-0, with Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri scoring twice.

GROUP C

Spain outclassed Belarus from the start in the southern city of Huelva, as midfielder Francisco "Isco" Alarcon made the most of his fifth appearance for Spain in place of the injured Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas.

Isco stood out in Spain's electric first 20 minutes, and curled in a right-footed strike in the 18th after Jorge "Koke" Resurreccion had intercepted the ball.

Sergio Busquets' deflected shot from long range found the net less than a minute later, and Pedro Rodriguez made it 3-0 in the 55th after Juanfran Torres broke down the right side of Belarus' defense.

Jose Callejon and Alvaro Morata debuted for Spain in the second half. Slovakia earned their fourth win in as many games from first-half goals by Juraj Kucka and Adam Nemec.

Ukraine stayed level with Spain on nine points after Andriy Yarmolenko scored a hat trick in a 3-0 win at Luxembourg. Macedonia was left with three points. Belarus and Luxembourg remained with one point each.

GROUP G

Austria's win over Russia kept it unbeaten in nine straight matches since October 2013 as it seeks to qualify for the European Championship for the first time.

Substitute Rubin Okotie, who also scored in Austria's 1-0 win over Montenegro last month, hit from a counterattack in the 14th.

The defeat left Russia five points adrift, along with Montenegro, and with just one win from its last seven competitive matches.

Ibrahimovic put Sweden ahead at Montenegro after scoring from short range for his 51st goal in 101 matches for the Scandinavians.

Jovetic grabbed the draw after he was brought down by Erkan Zengin.

In the other group game, Moldova slumped to a stunning 1-0 home defeat by Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein rose to four points, leaving Moldova with one.

What's your reaction?

Comments

https://terka.info/assets/images/user-avatar-s.jpg

0 comment

Write the first comment for this!