WAYNE ROONEY attempted to put the off-field allegations of his infidelity behind him as he opened the scoring in a comfortable 3-1 win for England over Switzerland in Basle.
Manchester United striker Rooney has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week after stories in the News of the World claimed he cheated on his wife Colleen by paying a prostitute £1,200.
But, despite the rather unsavoury reports, Rooney travelled with the squad and he repaid the faith of Fabio Capello almost immediately.
England scored early on Friday night against Bulgaria and repeated the trick tonight with just nine minutes gone at St Jakob Stadium.
Theo Walcott and Glen Johnson combined to good effect to set up Rooney with a tap-in, though Walcott was injured in the move and had to be replaced by Adam Johnson.
England continued to the press in an excellent first half performance and could have added to their tally with Friday's hero Jermain Defoe failing to convert a succession of chances.
At the start of the second half, there was more of the same from England until a Swiss spell on the hour made Joe Hart look a little nervy and forced a new-look defence into a couple of rash clearances.
But just as the home side started to get the crowd behind them, struggling full-back Stephan Lichsteiner was sent off for crude challenge on James Milner.
England made their one-man advantage work in their favour immediately as Adam Johnson rounded the goalkeeper for his second international goal in a week.
However, the Swiss responded in this extraordinary spell with the goal of the night as Xherdan Shaqiri smashed a shot past Hart to make it 2-1 with 20 minutes left.
Rather than inviting pressure, Capello's men continued to attack with their numerical advantage and dominated the latter part of the match.
It should have been 3-1 and game over when Shaun Wright-Phillips failed once again to justify his selection with a woefully under-hit pass to fellow-substitute Darren Bent who was clean through.
Regardless, Sunderland striker Bent did eventually score his first England goal with a confident finish that finally put the game to bed.
Meanwhile, at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland only just escaped total humiliation after Stephen McManus headed a 97th-minute winner against Liechtenstein.
After a goalless first half, the part-timers had taken a shock lead in the opening minute of the second period through captain Mario Frisk.
Kenny Miller's volley brought Craig Levein's men level with 25 minutes in the new national team coach's first competitive home match.
But the Scots struggled to mount significant pressure to push for 2-1, although Liechtenstein's players were hardly helping Scotland's cause with their cynical timing-wasting tactics.
Eventually the time-wasting was to be Liechtenstein's downfall but McManus's header from a corner should not excuse an absolutely woeful performance.
Incredibly, with Spain not in competitive action, the Scots' three points and Czech Republic's 1-0 home loss to Lithuania puts Scotland at the top of Group I.
Tonight, Levein is a lucky, lucky man.
Wales manager John Toshack has not been so fortunate and has resigned following the awful 1-0 loss in Montenegro on Friday.
Toshack has said he will stay on for the matches in October against Bulgaria and Switzerland if no replacement has been found but otherwise says he will leave immediately.
In the meantime, Montenegro pulled off another amazing result, winning 1-0 away in Sofia against Bulgaria to be level with England on six points in Group G.
Republic of Ireland looked set for an easy win against Andorra after first-half goals from Kevin Kilbane and Kevin Doyle but they also had to survive a scare.
Andorra's Cristian Martinez stunned the crowd at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin with a fine goal on half time to make it 2-1.
Nevertheless, the Irish saw off the threat in the second half and Robbie Keane made it 3-1 to put Giovanni Trapatonni's men top of Group B.
But, perhaps the more significant result in that group came in Moscow as Russia were beaten 1-0 by Slovakia.
Elsewhere, Miroslav Klose hit a hat-trick as Germany and Italy both recorded big wins - 6-1 against Azerbaijan and 5-0 over the Faroe Islands respectively.
Sweden also hit six goals, without reply, against hapless San Marino while, also in Group E, Klass-Jan Huntelaar made it five goals in two games for the Dutch in their 2-1 win over Finland.
France ended a run of four straight defeats, including humiliation at home against Belarus in their Euro2012 opener, by beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 away.
It is an impressive result for Laurent Blanc's men as Bosnia, who - like France - were in the World Cup qualifying playoffs, are probably Les Bleus' biggest threat in Group D.
That is because Romania have already proved to be a shadow of their former selves, just like neighbours Bulgaria in England's group.
Having finished fifth in qualifying for World Cup 2010, Romania have opened their campaign with successive draws against Albania and Belarus, and they are already off the pace.
Portugal and Greece are also struggling. Portugal lost 1-0 to leaders Norway in Group H on the back of a 4-4 home draw against Cyprus.
Worse still, they are leaderless after the suspension for six months of Carlos Queiroz for interference in a World Cup anti-doping test.
Like Romania, Euro 2004 champions Greece have opened with two draws - against Georgia on Friday, and in Croatia tonight.
And with that draw, the Croatians have seized the early advantage in Group F.
FULL RESULTS
GROUP A
Austria 2-0 Kazakhstan
Germany 6-1 Azerbaijan
Turkey 3-2 Belgium
GROUP B
FYR Macedonia 2-2 Armenia
Republic of Ireland 3-1 Andorra
Russia 0-1 Slovakia
GROUP C
Italy 5-0 Faroe Islands
Serbia 1-1 Slovenia
GROUP D
Albania 1-0 Luxembourg
Belarus 0-0 Romania
Bosnia-Herzegovina 0-2 France
GROUP E
Hungary 2-1 Moldova
Netherlands 2-1 Finland
Sweden 6-0 San Marino
GROUP F
Croatia 0-0 Greece
Georgia 0-0 Israel
Malta 0-2 Latvia
GROUP G
Bulgaria 0-1 Montenegro
Switzerland 1-3 England
GROUP H
Denmark 1-0 Iceland
Norway 1-0 Portugal
GROUP I
Czech Republic 0-1 Lithuania
Scotland 2-1 Liechtenstein
The next Euro 2012 qualifiers are on Friday 8th October.
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