16 Oct 2008

Two-goal Rooney leads England to fourth straight victory

10:02 am on 16 October 2008

England's beaten Belarus 3-1 to record a fourth straight win in Group Six of football's World Cup European qualifying series.

Two goals from Wayne Rooney and one from Steven Gerrard secured the win in Minsk.

It's a first for England, who'd never previously won their opening four matches in any World Cup qualifying campaign going back to 1949-50.

Northern Ireland were 4-0 home winners over San Marino, and Ireland beat Cyrus 1-0 in Dublin but Wales lost 1-0 in Germany.

The Netherlands beat Norway 1-0 and other winners include Spain, who defeated Belgium 2-1 in Brussels, while Italy beat Montenegro 2-1, Serbia had a comfortable away in Austria and Switzerland won in Greece.