England cruise to fifth straight qualifying win

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

England enjoyed the perfect build-up to their crucial Europe 2008 qualifier with Russia next week by beating Estonia 3-0 at Wembley Saturday.

Having won their last five qualifiers, racking up 15 goals without reply, victory for England in Moscow Wednesday will now assure them a place in the finals next summer.

Captain Steven Gerrard had spoken of the need to score early and to "kill" Estonia, and he got his wish as England went ahead in the 11th minute and struck twice more before half-time to set up a comfortable win.

Goalkeeper Mart Poom, who had been a major doubt with a back injury, was badly at fault for the opener, as he was slow to get down to Shaun Wright-Phillips's shot and allowed it to pass between his legs, but England deserved credit for the way they kept the attack going after Raio Piiroja had cleared Joe Cole's initial cross.

Gareth Barry, preferred to Frank Lampard in central midfield, gathered the ball on the right, and laid it to Wright-Phillips, who exchanged passes with Micah Richards, before beating Taavi Rahn to create space for the shot that became his third goal for his country.

Poom always looked laboured, and he bore a degree of responsibility for the both second and third, which arrived within the space of 90 seconds.

First Wayne Rooney, with the aid of a slight deflection, hit a Joe Cole cross back across Poom for his first international goal since Euro 2004, and then Taavi Rahn lucklessly headed an Ashley Cole cross past his own goalkeeper from 20 yards.

The only down side for England was the ankle injury that forced Ashley Cole to leave the field on a stretcher four minutes after half-time. dpa jmw tis adh