4. EURO '08:England finally finds the net

• by Soccer America , Mar 29, 2007

After getting shut out in its last three Euro 2008 qualifiers, England finally found the net against Andorra, a nation in the middle of Spain whose entire population could fit into Wembley stadium.

The 3-0 win on second-half goals by Steven Gerrard, who struck twice, and David Nugent, puts England in a three-way tie for second in Group E with Israel and Russia, which has a game in hand, two points behind Croatia, which also has a game in hand.

England supporters at the game in Barcelona chanted "What a load of rubbish" and "You're not fit to wear the shirt" during the game that went scoreless until the 54th minute.

"The fans were expecting us to win 4/5/6-0 but it's not as easy as that -- they got a lot of men behind the ball," said Gerrard. "We had to show a lot of character when it was 0-0 at halftime but in the second half we showed character and moved the ball quicker. They weren't as fit as us and eventually we wore them down."

World Cup winner Italy won its must-win game against Scotland, 2-0, on two goals by Luca Toni and is now just two points out of first place, with a game in hand over leader Ukraine, which beat Lithuania.

Defending European champion Greece, which was thumped last weekend 4-1 by Turkey, beat Malta 1-0. The Turks, playing behind closed doors in Frankfurt, came back to tie Norway, 2-2.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst's deflected shot gave the Netherlands a 1-0 victory in Slovenia as the Dutch held on to first place in Group G.

EURO '08 QUALIFYING
Group A
Serbia 1 (Jankovic 37) Portugal 1 (Tiago 5).
Poland 1 (Maciej Zurawski 26) Armenia 0
Azerbaijan 1 (Imamaliyev 82) Finland 0.
Group B
Italy 2 (Toni 12, 70) Scotland 0.
Georgia 3 (Siradze 25, Iashvili 44, pen. 90) Faeroe Islands 1 (Jacobsen 58).
Ukraine 1 (Gusev 48) Lithuania 0.
Group C
Turkey 2 (Hamit 72, 89) Norway 2 (Brenne 31, Andresen 40).
Malta 0 Greece 1 (Basinas pen. 66).
Hungary 2 (Priskin 9, Gera 63) Moldova 0.
Group D
Wales 3 (Giggs 3, Bale 20, Koumas pen. 63) San Marino 0.
Ireland 1 (Doyle 13) Slovakia 0.
Czech Republic 1 (Kovac 20) Cyprus 0.
Group E
Andorra 0 England 3 (Gerard 54, 76, Nugent 89)
Israel 4 (Tal 20, Colautti 31, Sahar 77, 80) Estonia 0
Group F
Spain 1 (Iniesta 79) Iceland 0
Liechtenstein (Frick 17) 1 Latvia 0
Northern Ireland 2 (Healy 31, 58) Sweden 1 (Elmander 27)
Group G
Slovenia 0 Netherlands 1(van Bronckhorst 85)
Romania 3 (Mutu 25, Contra 50, Marica 90) Luxembourg 0
Bulgaria 0 Albania 0