England gets back on track behind Beckham

Jun 6, 2007, 21:25 GMT

Tallinn, Estonia - David Beckham played in his first competitive international match for England since last summer's World Cup, and he did not disappoint, setting up a pair of goals in England's 3-0 win over Estonia in a EURO 2008 qualifier at A. Le Coq Arena.

England entered the match in a must-win situation and manager Steve McClaren had to feel plenty of pressure to come away from the game with three points. His recall of Beckham proved to be a wise choice as the Real Madrid midfielder set up second-half goals by Peter Crouch and Michael Owen after Joe Cole opened the scoring in the first half.

It was a much-anticipated return to the national squad for Owen as well. He too was making a return to the England squad for the first time since the World Cup, when he suffered a knee injury.

England was in desperate need of points in order to stay within touching distance of the top three teams, and they were fortunate to come up against an Estonia side that had failed to record a point in its first six games.

The Three Lions were in control throughout the game, but it wasn't until the 37th minute that they had a numerical edge on the scoreboard. Wayne Bridge's throw-in was flicked on by Crouch to Cole, who took the ball down off his chest and beat his defender before blasting a half-volley past keeper Mart Poom for a 1-0 lead.

Beckham then gave his side a working margin in the second half, producing a pair of brilliant crosses to set up insurance goals. He first set up Crouch nine minutes after the restart, taking the ball on the right and curling it into the box for the lanky Liverpool striker. Crouch got his head to the ball and easily finished off the play to put England ahead by two goals.

Eight minutes later Beckham played provider once again, this time setting up Owen. Frank Lampard swung the ball across the field to Beckham, who was set up on the right flank. He curled the ball towards Owen at the far post and the striker was there to stab the ball past the keeper.

Beckham ended up leaving the game shortly after with a slight knee injury but his job was done. It was an expected win for England but one that was necessary to keep them in the hunt for Austria and Switzerland.

In other Group E play on Wednesday, Israel downed Andorra 2-0 to move level on points with group-leaders Croatia, who were held to a 0-0 draw by Russia.

In Group A, Hamlet Mkhitaryan scored in the 66th minute to help Armenia stun Poland 1-0. Finland got a much-needed 2-0 win against Belgium to stay in contention and 10-man Kazakhstan earned a 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan.

Group B saw France remain in the top spot with a 1-0 win over Georgia thanks to Samir Nasri's goal in the 33rd minute. Italy held on to the second spot with a 2-0 win against Lithuania as Fabio Quagliarella scored twice and Scotland moved into the third spot with a 2-0 win of its own against the Faroe Islands.

Greece got a goal from Nikos Liberopoulos in the 90th minute to keep a five- point edge on the rest of Group C with a 2-1 win over Moldova. Norway put up another 4-0 win, this time against Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina jumped into second place with a narrow 1-0 triumph over Malta.

Group D's lone contest saw Germany extend its lead in the group to five points as Thomas Hitzlsperger scored in the 43rd minute to give Germany a 2-1 win over Slovakia.

Marcus Allback scored two goals as Sweden put together a comprehensive 5-0 defeat of Iceland, moving the Swedes one point clear of second-place Spain, who recorded a 2-0 win against Liechtenstein courtesy of two David Villa goals. The other game in the group saw Denmark double up on Latvia 2-0 behind two Dennis Rommedahl tallies.

Romania stayed unbeaten and on top of Group G with a 2-0 win over Slovenia, while Bulgaria kept pace with a 2-1 victory against Belarus to stay two points back. The other game in the group featured Luxembourg losing for the seventh time in seven tries as they fell 3-0 to Albania.

© 2007 The Sports Network