Belarus 1-3 England
2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifier
Group Six
7.30pm, Wednesday 15 October 2008
Dinamo Stadium, Minsk
Live on Setanta
England hero Wayne Rooney selflessly passed the praise onto his team-mates after he fired a superb brace to lead Fabio Capello's men to a 3-1 victory over Belarus in Minsk.
The victory ensures England have won all four of their games in the qualification stages for the 2010 World Cup - the first time a Three Lions side has ever achieved that feat in a World Cup Qualifying campaign.
And Rooney was the catalyst, setting up the first - a stunning 30-yard effort from Steven Gerrard - before scoring twice in the second-half to put Belarus to the sword.
But rather than take all the glory the Manchester United frontman, who has now scored five goals in his last three internationals, was happy to share the limelight.
"A lot of the credit must go to my team-mates," said Rooney, who has now won 48 caps despite being just 22-years-old.
"They worked so hard, and the midfield four were really good. Then it was a great pass by Stevie (Gerrard) for the third goal, but you have to be pleased with the three points."
And Rooney was delighted to help England maintain their perfect start in Qualifying Group Six.
"It's really good and we've worked really hard for it," he said. "We deserved this result and it's a great three points for us.
"To take 12 points from you first four games is a great start and you have to be pleased with that."
Teams
Belarus
12 Yuri Zhevnov, 2 Aleksandr Kulchy, 3 Egor Filipenko, 4 Sergei Omelyanchyuk, 5 Dmitry Molosh, 7 Vitaly Bulyga, 10 Pavel Sitko, 13 Vitaly Kutuzov, 14 Anton Putilo (11 Vitaly Rodionov, 67), 16 Igor Stasevich (9 Vyacheslav Hleb, 90), 18 Dzmitry Verkhovtsov
Goals
Sitko 28
Subsititutes
Anton Amelchenko, Sergei Veremko, Vladimir Korytko, Andrei Chukhlei, Sergei Sosnovsky, Aleksandr Hleb, Oleg Strakhanovich, Aleksandr Pavlov, Alexei Skvernyuk
Manager
Bernd Stange
England
1 David James, 2 Wes Brown, 3 Wayne Bridge, 4 Steven Gerrard, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 Matthew Upson, 7 Theo Walcott (16 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 68), 8 Frank Lampard, 9 Emile Heskey (18 Peter Crouch, 70), 10 Wayne Rooney (15 David Beckham, 88), 11 Gareth Barry
Goals
Gerrard 11, Rooney 50, 74
Substitutes
12 Scott Carson, 13 Glen Johnson, 14 Joleon Lescott, 17 Jermain Defoe
Manager
Fabio Capello
Referee
Terje Hauge (Norway)
Assistant Referees
Geir Age Holen, Jan Petter Randen (Both Norway)