England outclass Moldova

London - England outclassed Moldova 4-0 to top World Cup qualifying Group H thanks with two goals from Danny Welbeck and one each from captain Steven Gerrard and Rickie Lambert sealing a comfortable victory at Wembley on Friday.

The result gave England the perfect lift ahead of Tuesday's far more difficult game in Kiev against Ukraine, who kept alive their chances of qualifying for next year's finals in Brazil with an even more emphatic 9-0 win over San Marino.

With previous group leaders Montenegro drawing 1-1 in Poland, England head the group with 15 points from seven matches ahead of Montenegro, who have played one match more, on goal difference. Ukraine have 14 points and Poland 10 from seven.

England went ahead through Gerrard who scored with a low strike after 12 minutes before Lambert made it 2-0 with a header in the 26th. Welbeck wrapped up the victory by scoring either side of half-time.

European zone World Cup qualifying results on Friday:

Group A

At Skopje

Macedonia 2 (Trickovski 21, Trajkovski 80) Wales 1 (Ramsey 39-pen)

At Glasgow, United Kingdom

Scotland 0 Belgium 2 (Defour 38, Mirallas 89)

At Belgrade

Serbia 1 (Mitrovic 66) Croatia 1 (Mandzukic 53)

Group B

At Prague

Czech Republic 1 (Rosicky 70) Armenia 2 (Mkrtchyan 31, Ghazaryan 90)

At Ta'Qali, Malta

Malta 1 (Failla 38) Denmark 2 (Andreasen 2, Camilleri 53-og)

At Palermo, Italy

Italy 1 (Gilardino 38) Bulgaria 0

Group C

At Astana

Kazakhstan 2 (Nurdauletov 50-pen, Finonchenko 64) Faroe Islands 1 (Benjaminsen 23)

At Dublin

Republic of Ireland 1 (Keane 21) Sweden 2 (Elmander 33, Svensson 57)

At Munich, Germany

Germany 3 (Klose 33, Kroos 51, Mueller 88) Austria 0

Group D

At Bucharest

Romania 3 (Marica 2, Pintilii 31, Tanase 88) Hungary 0

At Kayseri, Turkey

Turkey 5 (Bulut 35, 39, 68, Yilmaz 61, Turan 90+3) Andorra 0

At Tallinn

Estonia 2 (Vassiljev 17, 56) Netherlands 2 (Robben 1, Van Persie 90+3-pen)

Group E

At Oslo

Norway 2 (Elyounoussi 43, King 66) Cyprus 0

At Bern

Switzerland 4 (Lichtsteiner 15, 30, Schar 27, Dzemaili 54-pen) Iceland 4 (Johann Berg Gudmundsson 3, 68, 90+1, Sigthorsson 56)

At Ljubljana

Slovenia 1 (Kampl 19) Albania 0

Group F

At Kazan, Russia

Russia 4 (Kokorin 1, 36, Kerzhakov 60, Samedov 90+2) Luxembourg 1 (Joachim 90)

At Belfast

Northern Ireland 2 (McAuley 36, Ward 52) Portugal 4 (Bruno Alves 20, Cristiano Ronaldo 68, 77, 83)

Group G

At Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 Slovakia 1 (Pecovsky 77)

At Vaduz

Liechtenstein 0 Greece 1 (Mitroglou 72)

At Riga

Latvia 2 (Bulvitis 20, Zjuzins 42) Lithuania 1 (Matulevicius 44)

Group H

At Lviv, Ukraine

Ukraine 9 (Devic 11, Seleznov 26, Edmar 32, Khacheridi 46, 54, Konoplyanka 50, Bezus 63, Fedetskiy 74, Rakitskiy 90+3) San Marino 0

At Warsaw

Poland 1 (Lewandowski 16) Montenegro 1 (Damjanovic 11)

At London

England 4 (Gerrard 12, Lambert 27, Welbeck 45+1, 50) Moldova 0

Group I

At Tbilisi

Georgia 0 France 0

At Helsinki

Finland 0 Spain 2 (Alba 19, Negredo 86)