England powered into the home straight of their World Cup qualification campaign on Friday by crushing Moldova 4-0 at Wembley to move top of qualifying Group H. After Steven Gerrard opened the scoring with his 20th international goal, a Rickie Lambert header and a Danny Welbeck brace completed a win that saw England overtake former leaders Montenegro on goal difference.
Welbeck’s superbly taken double took his tally to six goals in seven international games, but he also picked up a booking that rules him out of Tuesday’s key game away to third-place Ukraine, who trail England by a point. World champions Spain moved to within touching distance of a place at next year’s World Cup with a 2-0 win over Finland in Helsinki.
Jordi Alba got the visitors off to the perfect start when he collected Cesc Fabregas’ fine lofted pass to slot home after 19 minutes. Finland had their chances to level after the break but Alvaro Negredo sealed the points when he swept home Jesus Navas’ cross.
Germany edged closer to booking their World Cup place with a convincing 3-0 win over Austria in Friday night’s qualifier as striker Miroslav Klose equalled the German goal-scoring record. Veteran striker Klose, 35, equalled Gerd Mueller’s 39-year-old record of 68 goals for Germany when he gave his side a first-half lead on his 129th international appearance as Bayern pair Toni Kroos and Thomas Mueller added second-half goals.
Striker Karim Benzema’s failure to score in his last 15 France matches has seriously diminished his team’s hopes of qualifying directly for next year’s World Cup finals. France drew 0-0 with Georgia in their qualifying Group I in Tbilisi on Friday. Robin van Persie’s stoppage time penalty spared the Netherlands from suffering an embarrassing defeat as they drew 2-2 in Estonia.