Football
ESPN staff 9y

Slovakia beat Spain, England cruise past San Marino

Slovakia beat Spain 2-1 to make it two wins out of two and move clear at the top of Euro 2016 qualification Group C.

Spain, who had beaten Macedonia 5-1 in their first match, fell behind on 17 minutes when Juraj Kucka's powerful free kick found its way past Iker Casillas.

Vicente del Bosque made a series of attacking changes -- leaving only Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba as defenders -- and one of his substitutes, Paco Alcacer, scored a neatly taken equaliser on 83 minutes.

However, Slovakia were able to quickly hit back as Miroslav Stoch turned home a cross at the far post to maintain their 100 percent record after beating Ukraine 1-0 in their opener.

Ukraine, meanwhile, bounced back with a 2-0 win away to Belarus courtesy of two late goals, while Macedonia needed an injury-time winner to beat Luxembourg 3-2.

England beat San Marino 5-0 at Wembley as they remained in control of Group E.

Roy Hodgson's men, who had beaten Switzerland 2-0 in their opening qualifier, were dominant but initially struggled to find a cutting edge against the joint lowest-ranked team in world football.

They made the breakthrough on 25 minutes, with Phil Jagielka heading home after goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini failed to collect from a corner, and Wayne Rooney then won and converted a penalty.

Danny Welbeck added to their advantage early in the second half before Andros Townsend fired in a fourth, and Alessandro Della Valle diverted a ball from Rooney into his own net to complete the rout.

Switzerland lost 1-0 away to Slovenia as their disappointing start continued, with Milivoje Novakovic scoring from the penalty spot in the 79th minute. In the same group, Lithuania beat Estonia 1-0.

In Group G, Sweden claimed a 1-1 draw at home to Russia.

Aleksandr Kokorin gave the visitors the lead on 11 minutes when his shot evaded Andreas Isaksson and found its way into the bottom corner.

Sweden might have been level shortly afterwards, but Seb Larsson saw a dubiously awarded penalty saved by Igor Akinfeev.

They did find an equaliser shortly after the break, though, as Ola Toivonen tapped home from Jimmy Durmaz's cross to secure a share of the spoils.

Austria, having drawn with Sweden in their opener, won 2-1 away to Moldova with goals from David Alaba and Marc Janko, although the latter received a late red card.

Liechtenstein, meanwhile, claimed a shock 0-0 draw against Montenegro.

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