England, Netherlands maintain perfect world cup starts

England is off to its best ever start in World Cup qualifying and Netherlands also won Wednesday to make it a maximum nine points from three games.

Wayne Rooney was again England's star, scoring two goals in a 3-1 win at Belarus only days after his two in Saturday's 5-1 victory over Kazakhstan at Wembley.

After victories in Andorra and Croatia, England has a five-point advantage over Ukraine and Croatia in Group 6 going into a six-month break in qualifying.

Helped by two goals for Ivan Rakitic, Croatia outplayed last-place Andorra 4-0 to draw level on seven points with Ukraine, which didn't have a game and next plays at England on April 1.

The Netherlands also holds a five-point advantage in Group 9 in the race for spots at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after beating Norway 1-0.

A minute after Dirk Kuyt had hit the crossbar, Mark van Bommel scored in the 64th minute and the Dutch have nine points from three games. That is five more than its nearest rivals, Scotland and Iceland, which jumped from fifth to third by edging Macedonia 1-0.

"We knew it was going to be a very tough game," Netherlands captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst said. "We are very happy with the three points. It gives us a lot of trust and confidence going into the future."

After taking only one point from its first two games, the Czech Republic revived its hopes to going to the finals by edging Slovenia 1-0 with Libor Sionko's 62nd-minute goal. The Czechs now have four points from three games.

Helped by two own-goals and a late strike by Andrei Arshavin, Russia outplayed Finland 3-0 in Group 4.

Lithuania edged last-place Faeroe Islands 1-0 to keep the pressure on Group 7 leader Serbia, which both have nine points from four games.

Sapa-AP