Wayne Rooney closed to within one goal of England’s all-time scoring record on Sunday, while Vicente del Bosque reached his 100th game in charge of Spain with a victory in European Championship qualifying.
Rooney moved to the brink of matching Bobby Charlton’s England scoring milestone of 49 goals by clinching a 3-2 victory over Slovenia.
In Belarus, David Silva gave Spain a harder-than-expected 1-0 win to ensure Del Bosque could celebrate his 100th match in charge of the two-time defending champions. Slovakia remained with England as the only sides to have won all six group qualifiers after seeing off Macedonia 2-1 to stay top of Group C, three points ahead of Spain.
GROUP E
Rooney matched Gary lineker’s England haul of 48 goals as England kept its commanding lead of Group E. Jack Wilshere finally bagged his first goals for England in his 28th international, scoring twice from outside the area.
The two strikes in ljubljana by the Arsenal midfielder wiped out Slovenia’s 1-0 halftime lead, which Milivoje Novakovic had provided.
Although Nejc Pecnik produced an 84th-minute leveler, Rooney pounced two minutes later after collecting a pass from substitute Theo Walcott. The Swiss had to come from behind to win in lithuania, with goals from Josip Drmic and Xherdan Shaqiri pushing them up to second.
Sergei Zenjov scored twice to lift Estonia to fourth place, two points behind Slovenia, with a 2-0 victory over San Marino.
GROUP C
Silva converted Spain’s strong first-half performance into a goal just before the break, smashing in a cross from Cesc Fabregas that goalkeeper Gorbunov had misjudged.
In Zilina, Kornel Salata started in place of injured defender Jan Durica and responded by heading in Slovakia’s eighth-minute opener. Marek Hamsik made it 2-0 before Arijan Ademi pulled one back for Macedonia in the 69th. Ukraine beat luxembourg 3-0.
GROUP G
Marc Janko scored with a spectacular overhead kick as Austria maintained its grip on Group G with an away win over Russia. The Russians lost ground to Sweden, which moved to 12 points by beating Montenegro 3-1 thanks to two goals by Ibrahimovic. At the bottom of table, liechtenstein drew with Moldava 1-1.