England made to toil, Costa nets for Spain
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WAYNE Rooney scored his 43rd international goal as England beat Estonia 1-0 to preserve its perfect Euro 2016 qualifying record on Sunday, while Chelsea striker Diego Costa finally opened his Spain account.
Even after Estonia captain Ragnar Klavan was sent off early in the second half in Tallinn, Roy Hodgson’s England still labored to see off the Baltic minnows. But it finally got the breakthrough from Manchester United striker Rooney, who curled home a free-kick with 17 minutes remaining to maintain England’s 100 percent record after three Group E matches.
Rooney is now only six behind England record holder Bobby Charlton’s tally of 49.
Equally pleasing for Hodgson was seeing his defence achieve a fifth successive clean sheet for the first time in eight years.
Slovenia moved into second place behind England with a 2-0 win against Lithuania.
Defending champion Spain, which lost 1-2 in Slovakia, got its campaign back on track with a 4-0 win in Luxembourg in Group C. David Silva and Paco Alcacer scored in the first half, with Costa snatching the third on 69 minutes for his first international goal in his seventh appearance. Substitute Juan Bernat made it 4-0 with a debut goal on 87 minutes.
Eyebrows were raised before the game when Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque dropped veteran goalkeeper Iker Casillas in favor of Manchester United stopper David de Gea.
Slovakia’s 3-1 away win at Belarus, secured by a brace from Napoli striker Marek Hamsik and a late goal from Stanislav Sestak, left it top of the group.
Ukraine snatched a 1-0 win over Macedonia in Lviv. Austria edged Montenegro 1-0 in Vienna and Russia was held to a 1-1 draw against Sweden.
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