England, Spain and Russia in opening Euro 2016 wins

BASEL — Danny Welbeck scored twice as England began their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with a lively 2-0 win away to Switzerland, without doubt their toughest rivals in Group E.

England gave a vastly-improved performance on their World Cup outings, where they went out in the group stage, while Switzerland, playing their first match under new coach Vladimir Petkovic, showed few flashes of the form that took them to the last 16 in Brazil.

With the top two reaching the finals from a group that contains Slovenia, Estonia, San Marino and Lithuania, and the third-placed team either qualifying directly or going into a playoff, England seem to have one foot in the finals, and even the defeated Swiss still have little cause for concern.

“When we can counter-attack against teams, the pace, energy and the youth of the team are shown to good effect,” said England head coach Roy Hodgson. “We adopted a reasonably bold approach because I know if it’s going to work in the future, if this group of players is going to become any good, we have to do it from the start. Luckily, we got the result, which will help us.”

Spain badly needed a convincing performance after their World Cup flop and coach Vicente del Bosque had plenty of positives to dwell on after Monday’s 5-1 qualifying victory over Macedonia. While not exactly a revolution, it was a new-look Spain side, with Cesc Fabregas excellent in a creative central midfield role, David Silva a livewire up front and Paco Alcacer scoring on his first international start.

Del Bosque admitted that after their disastrous campaign in Brazil, there was more at stake than just points. “We know we lost a bit of credit after the World Cup and we have to win it back gradually,” he said. “The best thing we can do is do it on the pitch, not with words.”

Elsewhere, Russia were helped by two own goals as they began their Group G qualifying campaign with a 4-0 drubbing of Liechtenstein. In a group that includes Austria and Sweden (who drew 1-1 in Vienna), the Russians will know there is a lot tougher yet to come. AGENCIES