Rooney is two good

Wayne Rooney hailed England's perfect start to their 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ qualifying campaign as reward for the work ethic instilled in the side by coach Fabio Capello. The Manchester United forward scored twice in the 3-1 win over Belarus, a result which took his team on to maximum points from four games. This is the second time he scored twice for his national team - both goals came in the second half after the first period ended 1-1. Wayne was also involved in England's opening goal, netted by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

"It was great individual work by Emile (Heskey) for my first goal and a great pass by Stevie (Gerrard) for the second"
Rooney praises his team-mates for their contributions to his two goals against Belarus.

Rooney settled the contest with two well-taken second-half strikes, but he insisted the plaudits should be shared around. England were pegged back by Pavel Sitko's equaliser after Gerrard had given them an early lead. But they switched gear in the wake of Capello's half-time pep talk, and ran out comfortable winners. The win left England five points clear of Croatia at the top of Group 6, but Capello is taking nothing for granted in the wake of England's failure to reach UEFA EURO 2008.

Meanwhile, David Beckham became the third most-capped player in England's history by appearing as a late substitute in Minsk. The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder may only have been on the pitch for a few minutes, but that was still enough to secure him a 107th cap and relegate Sir Bobby Charlton to fourth place on the list.

One more appearance, possibly in a friendly in Germany next month, would take the 33-year-old equal with Bobby Moore's tally of 108 caps, the highest total by an outfield player. Beckham, however, still has some way to go to match former goalkeeper Peter Shilton's record of 125 appearances for England.

In others stadium, European Champion Spain extend their unbeaten streak in FIFA World Cup preliminaries to 39 matches after 2-1 win over Belgium. Germany without Michael Ballack defeat Wales 1-0, thanks to Piotr Trochowski's 72nd minute goal. Here are the full results

Group 1
Malta 0-1 Hungary
Portugal 0-0 Albania

Group 2
Latvia 1-1 Israel
Luxembourg 0-0 Moldova
Greece 1-2 Switzerland

Group 3
Czech Republic 1-0 Slovenia
Northern Ireland 4-0 San Marino
Slovakia 2-1 Poland

Group 4
Russia 3-0 Finland
Germany 1-0 Wales

Group 5
Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-1 Armenia
Belgium 1-2 Spain
Estonia 0-0 Turkey

Group 6
Croatia 4-0 Andorra
Belarus 1-3 England

Group 7
Lithuania 1-0 Faroe Islands
Austria 1-3 Serbia

Group 8
Republic of Ireland 1-0 Cyprus
Georgia 0-0 Bulgaria
Italy 2-1 Montenegro

Group 9
Iceland 1-0 FYR Macedonia
Norway 0-1 Netherlands

www.fifa.com