World Cup qual. - Rooney leads England to victory

Eurosport - Thu, 16 Oct 13:21:00 2008

Wayne Rooney scored a second-half brace as England made it four wins out of four in World Cup qualifying Group 6 with a 3-1 victory in Belarus.

FOOTBALL England celebrate v Belarus 2008 - 0

Steven Gerrard had given Fabio Capello's side an early lead in Minsk only for Pavel Sitko to equalise for the hosts midway through the first-half.

But Rooney poked home Emile Heskey's cross from the left, five minutes after the break, and then added a superb third after latching on to a Gerrard pass and finishing with aplomb.

For the second time in four days, England had produced a tepid opening 45 minutes.

The visitors had shown early promise with Rooney just inches away from prodding home a Theo Walcott cross from the right before the under-fire Gerrard gave England the lead with a goal reminiscent of so many he has scored for Liverpool.

The ball fell to the midfielder 25 yards out and he curled his shot past diving keeper Yury Zhevnov and into the bottom corner of the net.

Gerrard shot narrowly wide from long distance shortly after but the hosts had already signalled their intent with David James having to save a couple of fierce Dmitry Molosh efforts.

The Portsmouth keeper then had to deny Sitko and Vitali Kutusov before Bernd Stange's side got just rewards for their efforts.

Ihar Stasevich bought himself some time on the right-hand side of the penalty area with a neat trick to evade Wayne Bridge and his cross found Sitko who was left completely unmarked in the middle of the box to power a header past James.

England responded and Emile Heskey should have ended his international goal drought when he headed Frank Lampard's corner wide from close range and the Chelsea man - who was earlier the victim of a horror tackle by Anton Putsilo that should have earned the Belarus midfielder a red card - had a low drive well saved by Zhevnov.

Walcott, who failed to track Sitko for the goal, then had a shot saved by Zhevnov to conclude the opening period.

England came out after the interval a far better outfit and Rooney beat two men with a great run only to see his attempted curler into the bottom corner held by Zhevnov.

But he did strike shortly after as Heskey was afforded far too much space down the left and his cross was neatly poked home by the Manchester United striker from close range.

Capello replaced the ineffective Walcott and the tireless Heskey with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Peter Crouch respectively midway through the second-half and Rooney sealed the points with 16 minutes to go.

Rooney stepped over an infield pass from Bridge and then collected a crisp pass from Gerrard before drawing the defender into a challenge and lifting the ball over Zhevnov.

It took the 23-year-old's goal tally to five in the qualifying campaign and settled English nerves.

Gerrard should have added some gloss to the scoreline when he contrived to hit the post with the goal at his mercy late on but Capello will be delighted that his side continued their 100% start to the qualifying campaign and they lead the group by five points going into April's match with Ukraine at Wembley.

Croatia 4-0 Andorra

Two goals in each half gave Croatia a comfortable victory over Andorra in the other Group 6 game.

Tthe scoring was opened by midfielder Ivan Rakitic's superb 20-yard free-kick in the 16th minute.

Luka Modric had a 32nd-minute penalty saved by Jesus Alvarez after Victor Rodriguez's foul, but Ivica Olic slotted home the rebound to make it 2-0 at the break.

Modric poached a deflected cross from just inside the box to score the third on 75 minutes while Rakitic added his second from the penalty spot three minutes from time after Ildefons Lima's late tackle on Mario Mandzukic.

Lee Walker & / Reuters

Comment 195 - 214 of 234

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  1. if you look at some of last nights scores, you will­ find most of the top teams only won by 1 goal , against­ teams below them in world rankings.Portugal only drew­ 0-0 with Albania, so give England credit where credit­ is due, and get behind our lads in the best run they­ have had in 20 years.

    From fabbot, on Thu 16 Oct 4:18PM

  2. u cant deny the feel good factor in the england camp. i­ guess so far the 6million a year contract for capello­ doesn't look so bad after all. We cant get ahead of­ ourselves tho people were not even half way there yet.­ But let the optimism start again as we are starting to­ look like a team again!!!

    From doubt.it.man, on Thu 16 Oct 4:11PM

  3. dwayne harding is too stupid to be believed, com'on­ England

    From Steven, on Thu 16 Oct 4:06PM

  4. dwaynehardings mum could have done better than walcott­ for the belarus goal.

    From doubt.it.man, on Thu 16 Oct 4:04PM

  5. rooney the best!!!!!
    go england!!
    go man utd!!!
    f**k­ chelsea!!
    f**k arsenal!!
    double f**k for­ liverfool...
    hahaha...

    From Ro0NeYz, on Thu 16 Oct 4:04PM

  6. ONe thing we learnt from that game (which was otherwise­ an ok england performance) is that Walcott cant defend.­ Standing there like a wally as the BElarus lad headed­ in (nice goal for them, cant deny that). Oh well, the­ lad will learn.

    From JONATHAN, on Thu 16 Oct 4:02PM

  7. dwaynehardings mum was gr8 last night.

    From doubt.it.man, on Thu 16 Oct 4:01PM

  8. I think these guys are wonderful and have arrived, to­ have won with such a margin is not a joke, football is­ not what it used to be years back, they need our­ support to conquer the world. Jeff

    From samuel, on Thu 16 Oct 3:59PM

  9. dwayneharding, why dont u shut the @#$% up u @#$%.­ England are top of their qualifying group with 4 wins­ out of 4, let everyone else think what they want for­ @#$% sake.

    From doubt.it.man, on Thu 16 Oct 3:59PM

  10. Some people need to be realistic about the overall­ picture and this England's win. England should NOT­ have any trouble qualifying from a group containing­ Andorra(#184 Rank),Kazakistan(#131 rank),Belarus(#59­ Rank)and Ukrain(#19 Rank). Only Croatia(#6 Rank)have a­ higher ranking than England(#14 Rank).So far so good­ but it is a long way from world dominance !!

    From Tim, on Thu 16 Oct 3:25PM

  11. Hurray the match ended 3-1 in favour of England,anyway­ is not new to all foofball lovers, England is far more­ better than Belarus in term of football you can not­ rule that away,even if the best team in the world today­ wanted to play England the team will be having many­ thought about the match. This is because of premiership­ and the class of those guys playing there.I wish them­ well and also want them to continue with the clean­ record so that they can qualify for the world cup

    femi

    From oyedeji, on Thu 16 Oct 3:21PM

  12. Rooneys best game ever for England

    From David, on Thu 16 Oct 3:17PM

  13. im a chelsea fan but i think gerrard is slightly better­ than lampard but let's just let them play together­ like yesterday and stop arguing about who should be­ dropped

    From cfc_blues, on Thu 16 Oct 2:56PM

  14. Have you seen what Capello is ?

    From Paolo M, on Thu 16 Oct 2:32PM

  15. dwayneharding must be one of those mindless morons you­ keep hearing about who can't string a coherent­ sentence together - in this case he hasn't­ appreciated that at last Capello is gettng the best out­ of this England side. If you are an English­ fan...SUPPORT YOUR TEAM....don't knock them at­ every opportunity. From your mindless rhetoric I can­ only assume you are a jealous non English person who­ wishes his team had the potential of England.....your­ comments are worthless.

    From Peter H, on Thu 16 Oct 2:31PM

  16. "But he did strike shortly after as Heskey was­ afforded far too much space down the left and his cross­ was neatly poked home by the Manchester United striker­ from close range." that biased reportin n fanatic­ -HESKEY BEAT THE DEFENDER TRICKED THE NEXT B4 CROSSIN­ THE BALL(MAY NEATLY) TO ROONEY.ROONEY FINISHED WELL BUT­ GIVE DUE CREDIT TO HESKEY HE WAS GIVEN SPACE HE CREATED­ IT.

    From BABS, on Thu 16 Oct 2:29PM

  17. ARMCHAIR SUPPORTER CLUB AND COUNTRY

    COUCH POTATOES GO­ OF YOUR @#$% AND GET BEHIND THE NATIONAL TEAM

    END OFF

    From camtasia_1, on Thu 16 Oct 1:36PM

  18. i can't believe all this hype for england. England­ is not even a top 10 team right now...

    From lkrscks, on Thu 16 Oct 1:19PM

  19. I left the country to leave in OZ and England win­ easily twice in a few a few days..................I­ wanna come home!!

    From Aidan, on Thu 16 Oct 1:04PM

  20. If not printable had been on the pitch he or she would­ have had the red card
    so I hope the ref, off these­ comments is taking notice and is going to send
    this­ person (OFF)
    Thank you ref.

    From ron g, on Thu 16 Oct 1:01PM
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