ENGLAND banished their World Cup blues by beating Bulgaria 4-0 in the first set of Euro 2012 qualifiers at Wembley.
Jermain Defoe scored a hat-trick and substitute Adam Johnson scored his first international goal in a much improved performance by Fabio Capello's men.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Defoe gave England the lead as early as three minutes into their first match since the humiliating 4-1 loss to Germany in World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
Defoe then struck again on 61 minutes before two further goals by Defoe and Johnson in the last ten minutes rather embellished the final score.
In the only bad news of the night, England lost the unfortunate centre-back Michael Dawson to injury after he went down under a challenge early in the second half.
Dawson will miss the trip to Basle as England take on their main group rivals Switzerland on Tuesday night.
Elsewhere, Wales - who are also in England's group - were woeful, losing 1-0 in Montenegro. It is a result which suggests this campaign promises very little for John Toshack's young team.
Scotland also disappointed, managing just a 0-0 draw against Lithuania in Kausnas, in a group which also features World and European champions Spain who beat Lietchtenstein 4-0 away.
The two Irish sides did rather better with both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland winning 1-0 having seen off strong home efforts from Slovenia and Armenia respectively.
The biggest shock of the night came in France who followed up their terrible World Cup with a 1-0 home loss to Belarus albeit with a largely different set of players under new manager Laurent Blanc.
Cheered on to the pitch by 76,395 frenzied flag-waving supporters, the French left the field at full-time to a chorus of boos after conceding an 86th-minute Sergei Kislyak goal.
Italy, who also had a dreadful World Cup, had to come from behind to beat Estonia 2-1. But Portugal threw away leads of 3-2 and 4-3 as Cyprus came back again and again for a remarkable 4-4 draw in Guimaraes.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored a hat-trick as World Cup runners-up Netherlands had the biggest win of the night with a 5-0 away beating of perennial whipping boys San Marino in Group E.
Germany squeezed past Belgium 1-0 in Group A thanks to a Miroslav Klose goal early in the second half.
FULL RESULTS
GROUP A
Turkey take the early lead in the group with a comfortable 3-0 win in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Miroslav Klose scored his 53rd goal for Germany in their 1-0 away win in Belgium.
Kazakhstan 0-3 Turkey
Belgium 0-1 Germany
GROUP B
The three stronger teams in the group - Russia, Republic of Ireland and Slovakia, all enjoyed narrow wins over the minnows Andorra, Armenia and FYR Macedonia respectively.
Armenia 0-1 Republic of Ireland
Andorra 0-2 Russia
Slovakia 1-0 FYR Macedonia
GROUP C
Estonia almost followed up last month's 2-1 win over the Faroes with a shock result against Italy but the Italians came back to win 2-1. Serbia top the group with a 3-0 away win in Torshavn while Northern Ireland won for the first time in 11 games against World Cup finalists Slovenia.
Estonia 2-1 Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands 0-3 Serbia
Estonia 1-2 Italy
Slovenia 0-1 Northern Ireland
GROUP D
The two traditional powerhouses in Group D, France and Romania, continue to struggle allowing Bosnia-Herzegovina to take the early lead after their 3-0 win in Luxembourg.
Romania 1-1 Albania
Luxembourg 0-3 Bosnia-Herzegovina
France 0-1 Belarus
GROUP E
Klass-Jan Huntelaar scored a hat-trick as World Cup runners-up Netherlands easily beat San Marino 5-0 in the biggest win of the night in Europe. Sweden look set to challenge after their 2-0 victory over Hungary but Finland lost to Moldova by the same score after Sami Hyypia's early sending off.
Moldova 2-0 Finland
Sweden 2-0 Hungary
San Marino 0-5 Netherlands
GROUP F
Euro 2004 winners Greece could only manage a 1-1 home draw with Georgia as Croatia took an early lead in Group F with a 3-0 win over Latvia. Israel beat Malta 3-1 at home on Thursday night.
Israel 3-1 Malta
Latvia 0-3 Croatia
Greece 1-1 Georgia
GROUP G
Jermain Defoe's hat-trick helped England banish their World Cup blues as Fabio Capello's men strolled to a 4-0 win over Bulgaria. The other home nation in the group, Wales, did not fare so well, going down 1-0 in Montenegro, leading to calls for coach John Toshack to quit.
Montenegro 1-0 Wales
England 4-0 Bulgaira
GROUP H
Norway came from behind to beat neighbours Iceland 2-1 but the main Group H news came from Guimaraes as Portugal failed the shrug off a tenacious challenge from Cyprus who came back from 3-2 and 4-3 down to snatch a draw.
Iceland 1-2 Norway
Portugal 4-4 Cyprus
GROUP I
World and European champions Spain began their defence of the latter title with an easy 4-0 win in Lietchtenstein as Fernando Torres struck twice in Vaduz. But there were no goals in Vilnius as Lithuania and Scotland played out a 0-0 draw which promises little for both teams' campaigns.
Lithuania 0-0 Scotland
Liechtenstein 0-4 Spain
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