Rooney scores (on field) at last
BERLIN - Wayne Rooney shook off his private life problems as he scored in England's second win in Euro 2012 qualifying, and France finally also had something to smile on the night.
England got their second win in as many games when Rooney opened the scoring in a 3-1 victory in Switzerland. The important win for Rooney, and manager Fabio Capello, came amid newspaper allegations since Sunday against the United hero.
"Rooney still has serious domestic issues to address but at least he returns home with the admiration of England's players and supporters for a pedigree display of discipline and dynamism capped by a hugely significant goal," said The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
"Wayne Rooney played very well. He was okay (mentally) and scoring the goal helped too," Capello said. "The players want to play without other things on their minds. They can focus on the game alone. He did that."
The Times said in the direction of Rooney and England's mediocre World Cup:
"The road to redemption is a long one, but over the space of five days Fabio Capello, Wayne Rooney and the rest of this England team have done just about everything possible to leave their recent past behind them."
Meanwhile, Germany destroyed Azerbaijan 6-1, which will make it even more difficult for captain Michael Ballack to get back into the team from injury. "Ballack, you missed something," said the Bild daily.
"It won't be easy for Ballack to fight his way into the team again."