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.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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.
Klose may have boosted his international tally to 55 tying with Joachim Streich as second-highest all-time scorer for his country, 12 behind Gerd Mueller, but he gave the team’s younger players a warning.
“There was room for improvement, our conditioning let us down,” he said. “We kept our shape tactically, but we have many young players and they need to make the next step up now and reach the next level.”
Similarly Italy coach Cesare Prandelli was not going overboard after his side’s win over the Faroes as he seeks to restore their battered image after a disastrous defense of their world title under Marcello Lippi, which saw them come home after the first round of the World Cup.
“We’ve won two games, that’s the most important thing. We’re looking to develop our style of play, things are progressing slowly, but these games are never easy, you still have to play them,” he said.
■BULGARIA COACH QUITS
AP, SOFIA, BULGARIA
Stanimir Stoilov quit as Bulgaria coach on Tuesday after Montenegro inflicted the country’s second straight loss in early European Championship qualifying.
Elsad Zverotic clinched a 1-0 victory for Montenegro with a long-range strike in the 35th minute, four days after Bulgaria was thrashed 4-0 by England.
“This was my last game as coach of Bulgaria,” Stoilov was quoted as saying on UEFA’s Web site. “We lost and our chances of progressing are disappearing. Losing to Montenegro was too much.”
Bulgaria are at the bottom of Group G and play Wales on Oct. 8 in its next Euro 2012 qualifier.
The 43-year-old Stoilov, who had been in charge of Bulgaria since January last year, complained last week that the international retirement of Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov had left a big void up front.
Bulgaria missed several good chances to equalize from Ivelin Nikolov’s header and Martin Petrov saw several long-range strikes thwarted by goalkeeper Mladen Bozovic.
Stoilov introduced Hertha Berlin striker Valeri Domovchiyski and Parma’s Valeri Bojinov in the second half to boost the attack, but they couldn’t produce a goal.
Montenegro could have doubled the lead in the final minutes when Simon Vukcevic’s two strong shots narrowly missed the target.
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