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England, Spain impress with wins
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A DOUBLE by Danny Welbeck and Sergio Busquets’ first goal in 70 appearances helped England and Spain begin their respective Euro 2016 qualifying campaigns on a winning note and start putting behind them a forgettable World Cup finals.
The brace by Welbeck — who was considered surplus to requirements by Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and offloaded to Arsenal last week — saw England to a 2-0 win over Switzerland in Zurich while Busquets’ effort came in a 5-1 humbling of Macedonia.
There was, however, not to be a memorable evening for Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he failed to mark his 100th appearance for his country with a goal in the 1-1 draw with Austria — his only notable contribution a booking.
David Alaba opening the scoring for the hosts from the penalty spot — his seventh goal for Austria at the age of just 22 — only for Turkish-born forward Erkan Zengin to level.
Russia was another side like Spain and England to fail to fire at the World Cup — just four years before it plays host — but it too secured three points with a 4-0 home win over minnow Liechtenstein.
However, Fabio Capello’s side hardly convinced as two of its goals were own-goals and another came from a penalty.
Capello’s former charge England, though, was far more impressive against a side that succeeded in reaching the second round at the World Cup and only lost 0-1 to Argentina thanks to an Angel di Maria goal late in extra-time.
It was Welbeck, who departed United the same day di Maria arrived for a British record fee of 59-million pound (US$99million), who executed the chances set up for him as England manager Roy Hodgson celebrated victory over a team he coached and took to the 1994 World Cup finals.
It was Switzerland’s first competitive home defeat since a 1-3 loss to England in October 2010 and meant that new coach Vladimir Petkovic began his tenure in losing fashion.
“I thought the way we approached the game from the first minute was exactly what we wanted, and we got our reward," Hodgson told ITV.
Spain had begun life after the World Cup debacle with a friendly defeat to France last week.
However, it made short work of the Macedonians with aside from Busquets another notable scorer on the night being Paco Alcacer on his competitive international debut.
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