Welbeck's brace sinks Switzerland
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Basel, Switzerland (SportsNetwork.com) - Danny Welbeck scored a pair of second-half goals to lift England to a 2-0 win over Switzerland in Group E play in Euro 2016 qualifying at St Jakob Park on Monday.
After a scoreless first half, Welbeck opened the scoring in the 59th minute when Raheem Sterling took a pass from Wayne Rooney and slid a ball to the back post, where Welbeck arrived to slam it past goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
The Swiss had a great chance to equalize 20 minutes from time through substitute Josip Drmic, who beat the offside trap and rounded England goalkeeper Joe Hart before attempting to roll the ball home from a tight angle, only defender Gary Cahill to recover in time and clear the ball off the line.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Switzerland continued to push for an equalizer but England found a second goal in stoppage time with Sterling starting a nice break that saw Rickie Lambert release Welbeck into the area, where he beat Sommer with a right-footed shot to clinch all three points.
In other action in Group E, Lithuania won 2-0 at San Marino behind first-half goals from Deividas Matulevicius and Arvydas Novikovas, while the other match in the group saw Estonia edge Slovenia, 1-0, behind a goal from Ats Purje in the 86th minute.
Group C favorites Spain rolled to a 5-1 win over Macedonia by scoring three times in the first half, Slovakia joins Spain at the top of the group after a 1-0 win at Ukraine with Robert Mak's 17th-minute goal holding up and Belarus used a goal from Stanislav Dragun 12 minutes from time to claim a 1-1 draw at Luxembourg.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Russia took charge of Group G with a 4-0 victory over Liechtenstein that saw the Russians score three times in the second half, Sweden and Austria traded goals in the opening 12 minutes en route to a 1-1 draw, while Montenegro topped Moldova, 2-0, with goals from Mirko Vucinic and Zarko Tomasevic.