Rooney scores as England down Switzerland

Scandal-hit Wayne Rooney scored as England seized control of their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a comfortable 3-1 victory over 10-man Switzerland last night.

Italy were far from brilliant yet still managed to secure an easy 5-0 win over the Faroe Islands at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

Rooney, whose preparation for the match had been engulfed by lurid tabloid allegations about his private life, found the net after 10 minutes to help put Fabio Capello’s men on top of Group G with two wins out of two.

Substitutes Adam Johnson and Darren Bent also scored for the visitors in what will be regarded as a hugely encouraging result for England following such a miserable World Cup.

The result was marred by serious injuries to Theo Walcott and Jermain Defoe, both carried off on a stretcher, but it leaves England on six points from two games, and gives Rooney accused of cheating on his wife with a prostitute, with some kind of personal satisfaction at the end of a hugely trying week.

As for Switzerland, they scored possibly the goal of the game through substitute Xherdan Shaqiri despite having Stephan Lichtsteiner controversially sent off after 65 minutes and left the field frustrated with the refereeing of official Nicola Rizzoli.

In Florence, the 5-0 win was enough to put Italy in control of Group C following their 2-1 success in Estonia on Friday.

Alberto Gilardino, Daniele de Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Quagliarella and captain Andrea Pirlo found the net in a game that was over at half-time and which rarely gave a crowd of less than 20,000 much to get excited about.

Prolific German striker Miroslav Klose took his tally to 55 international goals with a double in the 6-1 rout of Azerbaijan which fired his side to the top of their group.

Before the game, Klose was presented with a special picture for winning his 100th cap during the World Cup and he capped his 103rd appearance with two goals to leave him as joint second Germany goal-scorer of all time.

His goals in injury time at the end of both halves takes him alongside Joachim Streich, but 12 behind all-time record scorer Gerd Mueller.

Cologne striker Lukas Podolski answered his critics in front of his home crowd as he scored a well-timed goal and then set up Klose at the end of the first-half.

After Heiko Westermann grabbed the first, Podolski and Klose struck before Azerbaijan captain Rashad Sadygov scored an own goal and with time almost up, defender Holger Badstuber scored his first goal, before Klose’s late second.

Germany are now top of Group A, but Turkey also have a 100 per cent record after two games as they beat Belgium 3-2 earlier in Istanbul with Germany set to face Turkey in Berlin on October 8.

In other matches, Slovakia beat Russia 1-0 away to make it two wins from their first two qualifiers in Group B. Fenerbahce midfielder Miroslav Stoch was the man of the match, scoring the decisive goal in the 27th minute.

Rudderless Portugal did themselves no favours, losing 1-0 to Norway to leave them trailing in their qualifying group after the opening skirmishes.

France got their campaign back on track and quickly turned the page on their shock defeat by Belarus with a superb 2-0 win over Bosnia away.

Karim Benzema, returning to the side after injury, opened the scoring in the 72nd minute and Florent Malouda doubled their lead six minutes later with a delightfully executed goal.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria coach Stanimir Stoilov announced his resignation yesterday in the aftermath of his team’s second successive defeat.

Bulgaria, beaten 4-0 by England at Wembley on Friday, lost 1-0 at home to Montenegro to prop up Group G.

Friendly: Argentina vs Spain 4-1.