David Beckham has returned to international competition and led England to a 3-0 win over Estonia in European Championship qualifying. World Cup finalists Italy and France also won on Wednesday.
Beckham returned to England's national team after 10 months away. He set up two goals at Estonia. England is currently fourth in the Group E standings, with just the top two teams from each seven-team group advancing to next year's Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland.
Croatia played visiting Russia to a scoreless draw and was joined at the top of the standings with 17 points by Israel, which won at Andorra, 2-0. Russia has 15 points, one more than England.
Defending European champion Greece scored in injury time to earn a 2-1 win over visiting Moldova. Bosnia beat Malta, 1-0. Norway trounced Hungary, 4-0. Scotland scored a 2-0 win at the Faeroe Islands.
Three-time European champion Germany traded own-goals with Slovakia in Hamburg before claiming a 2-1 victory and open a five-point lead in Group D. Germany has 19 points from seven matches, ahead of the Czech Republic with 14 and Ireland with 13. Slovakia stayed fourth with nine points.
Elsewhere, Italy beat host Lithuania, 2-0, to keep the pressure on Group B leader France, which beat Georgia, 1-0.
Spain was a 2-0 winner over Liechtenstein to stay within one point of Group F leader Sweden, which beat visiting Iceland, 5-0. Denmark topped Latvia, 2-0.
Poland lost to Armenia, 1-0, but remains at the top of Group A. Finland beat visiting Belgium, 2-0.
Romania beat Slovenia, 2-0, to stay ahead of Bulgaria by two points in Group G. The Bulgarians beat Belarus, 2-1. Albania won at Luxembourg, 3-0.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
