Reigning European champions Spain closed in on a place at Euro 2016 by grinding out a 1-0 qualifying win over Belarus on Sunday, while Wayne Rooney’s late goal gave England victory in Slovenia.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck a brace as Sweden beat Montenegro, but Russia were the day’s big losers, a defeat to Austria coming as a blow to their prospects of reaching the finals in France in a year’s time.
England are on a fast track to the tournament having won six games out of six in qualifying Group E, although they needed an 86th-minute winner from Rooney to secure victory.
Photo: AP
Milivoje Novakovic gave Slovenia the lead in the 37th minute at the Stozice Stadium before Jack Wilshere broke his international duck with a pair of brilliant, almost identical second-half goals to put England ahead.
Slovenia substitute Nejc Pecnik appeared to have rescued a point with an 84th-minute equalizer, but moments later Rooney atoned for two glaring earlier misses by scoring his 48th England goal, taking him level with Gary Lineker and leaving him one goal behind all-time leading scorer Bobby Charlton.
“It’s great to score the winner, but it was a great team performance,” Rooney said.
England are six points clear of Switzerland, who came from behind to beat Lithuania 2-1.
Fiodor Cernych put the home side ahead in the second half, but Josip Drmic equalized soon after for the Switzerland before Xherdan Shaqiri of Inter got the winning goal six minutes from time.
In the group’s other game, Sergei Zenjov scored two goals either side of halftime as Estonia defeated minnows San Marino 2-0.
Meanwhile, Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 winners Spain made it five victories from six games in Group C by beating hosts Belarus 1-0.
Manchester City’s David Silva got the only goal of the game in Vicente del Bosque’s 100th match in charge of Spain, controlling a Cesc Fabregas free-kick at the back post and volleying in.
However, it is Slovakia who top the group after they made it six wins out of six by downing visitors Macedonia 2-1. Kornel Salata and Napoli star Marek Hamsik scored for Slovakia, with Arijan Ademi getting one back for Macedonia, who had forward Feran Hasani sent off late on.
Spain and Slovakia meet in early September, while third-placed Ukraine are not out of the running after second-half goals from Artem Kravets, Denys Garmash and Yevhen Konoplyanka secured a 3-0 win for the hosts over Luxembourg.
In Group G, Russia’s hopes of qualifying were dealt a blow as Fabio Capello’s side slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Austria.
Giant striker Marc Janko scored the only goal of the game for Austria with a spectacular overhead-kick in the 33rd minute as they extended their lead at the top of the group.
After six games, unbeaten Austria — whose only previous European Championship appearance came as co-hosts in 2008 — are top with 16 points, four points clear of Sweden, with Russia a further four points adrift in third, which is likely to bring with it a playoff place.
Fabio Capello, the coach of the 2018 World Cup hosts, seemed to blame his team’s performance on the “pedestrian” pace of the game in Russia.
“It’s very hard to play at top speed because my players have not got into the habit of doing so in Russian Premier League matches,” Capello said.
Sweden won 3-1 at home to Montenegro with Marcus Berg opening the scoring before skipper Ibrahimovic of Paris Saint-Germain netted twice in four minutes just before halftime, with Dejan Damjanovic hitting a penalty consolation for the away side.
Also in Group G, Liechtenstein and Moldova drew 1-1 with Sandro Wieser’s brilliant strike putting the hosts ahead before Gheorghe Boghiu leveled.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was