Israel demolish Estonia to maintain pressure on England

Bolton’s Idal Tal got the ball rolling, netting in the 19th minute, with star striker Roberto Colautti heading in number two before half-time.

That was the end of the scoring until Chelsea youngster Ben Sahar came off the bench to score twice.

Ukraine joined Scotland and France at the top of Group B despite making hard work of Lithuania in Odessa. Oleh Gusev secured a 1-0 win when he turned in Maxym Kalynychenko’s cross two minutes after the interval.

Georgia took out their frustrations for Saturday’s heartbreaking defeat at Hampden Park by beating rock-bottom Faroe Islands 3-1. David Siradze opened the scoring, with Aleksandr Iashvili doubling the lead on the stroke of half-time.

Rogvi Jacobsen then shocked the home faithful by scoring the Islanders’ first goal of the qualifying campaign, but they then lost Frodi Benjaminsen to a second yellow card midway through the half. Iashvili then wrapped up Georgia’s victory with a stoppage-time penalty.

In Group A, Finland blew their chance to leapfrog leaders Poland with a shock defeat at rock-bottom Azerbaijan. Emin Imamaliev came off the bench to volley home from a corner seven minutes from time, sealing a 1-0 win that is Azerbaijan’s first of the campaign and only their third in Euro qualifying history.

Bulgaria also wasted the chance to go joint top of their group after playing out a goalless draw with Albania in Group G.

There were no such mistakes from Romania, who were also three points behind group leaders Holland going into their game with Luxembourg. Goals from former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu, Cosmin Contra and substitute Ciprian Marica sealed a comfortable 3-0 win over their last-placed opponents, who have now lost all five qualifiers.

Hungary won the battle of the bottom two in Group C by beating Moldova 2-0, goals from Watford’s Tobias Priskin and West Brom’s Zoltan Gera the difference between the sides.

Elsewhere in Group C, Hamit Altintop came to Turkey’s rescue as they salvaged a 2-2 home draw with Norway. The group leaders looked to be heading for their first defeat of the campaign when Simon Brenne and Martin Andresen gave the visitors a 2-0 half-time lead.

But Altintop netted twice in the last 13 minutes – his second a last-minute free-kick – to salvage a point. The draw allowed Greece to close the gap at the top to just a point after they won 1-0 at 10-man Malta.

In Group F, Liechtenstein earned their first points of the campaign with a 1-0 victory over Latvia, Mario Frick netting just their third goal in qualifying so far.

Poland opened up a five-point gap at the top of Group A, with Celtic’s Maciej Zurawski earning a 1-0 win over Armenia, who sink to the foot of the table. A victory for either Portugal and Serbia in their match would have taken them outright second but they played out a 1-1 draw in Belgrade.

Holland maintained their three-point lead at the top of Group G thanks to a 1-0 success in Slovenia. A rare goal from ex-Arsenal man Giovanni van Bronckhorst sealed victory in Celje.

* A late strike from Nicklas Bendtner handed Denmark a 1-0 win over an experimental Germany side in a friendly in Duisburg last night.