England extended their impressive winning streak in the Euro 2016 qualifiers to make it nine wins out of nine beating Estonia 2-0 at Wembley. They started the match having already qualified for the championships in France next summer. Theo Walcott and Raheen Sterling scored on either side of half-time in what turned out to be a comfortable victory for the Group leaders.
England were without their captain Wayne Rooney who was ruled out due to injury. Although he did make an appearance before kick-off to receive a Golden Boot from the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton after breaking his England goalscoring record with his 50th goal from the penalty spot in the last qualifier against Switzerland at Wembley.
The match was uneventful for most of the first half as Estonia were well organised and showed little ambition going forward. However, the first goal of the game came in the first half stoppage time when man-of-the-match Ross Barkley picked out Theo Walcott with a superb pass in what was the last kick of the half. And England's latest victory was sealed in the dying moments of the second half when substitute Jamie Vardy unselfishly set up a second from close range for Raheem Sterling. Goalkeeper Joe Hart was largely a spectator for most parts of the encounter.
Hodgson happy with victory
England manager said he was happy with his team’s performance in the match.
Speaking to reporters after the game he said, "It was as tough as we thought it would be. Estonia were well organised and they're a team that is intelligent in the way they play.
"We had to work hard, we attacked a lot, we had a lot of the ball and had a lot of chances. I thought we were good value for our 2-0 win."
England round off their qualifying campaign with a trip to Lithuania on Monday.