England striker Wayne Rooney and the French national side gained much-needed boosts on the soccer field in Tuesday’s latest round of Euro 2012 qualifiers.
Rooney, whose private life has been thrown into turmoil over allegations he slept with a prostitute, scored the first goal in England’s impressive 3-1 away win over Switzerland to make it two wins from two matches and erase memories of their poor World Cup showing.
France’s World Cup performance was even worse than England’s, returning after the first round and best remembered for the farcical goings-on off the field, but goals by Karim Benzema and Florent Malouda saw them to a fluent 2-0 away win against Bosnia — only their second win in 11 matches.
However, it is a win that comes against the team that coach Laurent Blanc considered the toughest in their group and with several key players suspended for varying lengths of time over their roles in the players’ strike in South Africa.
There were big wins for both Germany — 6-1 over former national coach Bertie Vogts’ Azerbaijan with Miroslav Klose’s insatiable appetite for goals seeing him score a brace — and a new-look Italy produced a 5-0 win over the Faroe Islands.
World Cup finalists the Netherlands edged to a 2-1 win over Finland with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scoring a double, but Portugal’s post World Cup woes continued as they followed a humiliating 4-4 home draw against Cyprus with a 1-0 defeat away to Norway.
The only good thing coach Carlos Queiroz — heavily criticized after their exit to eventual champions Spain at the World Cup — can take solace in is that he is not responsible for the results as he is serving a six-month suspension for insulting anti-doping officials.
It was the Scandinavian side’s first over their opponents in nine matches.
Scotland avoided what would have been a new low even by their standards in coming from behind to beat minnows Liechtenstein 2-1. Their winner came in the seventh minute of time added at the end of the match through Stephen McManus — sending Scotland top of their group.
Rooney will have some explaining to do to his wife, Colleen, over the stories, but at least he will be returning on the flight a happier man having scored his first goal on the international stage in a year.
England coach Fabio Capello, who saw Adam Johnson and Darren Bent score the others, paid tribute to Rooney’s resilience.
“You saw the game, no? I think he played well,” said the Italian, whose side suffered a double injury blow as Theo Walcott and Jermain Defoe were stretchered off.
“He was at the center of the play, the center of the movement. I think the pressure was strong for him, but he played well,” he said.
Both France’s goals came midway through the second-half, Benzema scoring his ninth goal in his 29th appearance with a fine shot and Malouda, one of the few France players to play anything close to his potential in South Africa, adding a second.
It left Blanc a delighted man.
“Our use of the ball was very good and, contrary to what happened on Friday [in the loss against Belarus], we got forward quickly,” said Blanc, who had tasted defeat in his first two matches in charge of the team.
“The fact we played deeper allowed us to create space and we have players up front, like Karim, who like space. We produced a marvelous result tonight,” he said.
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