England captain Wayne Rooney was delighted with the patience shown by his side as they caught Switzerland twice on the counter to win 2-0 and get off the mark in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
Switzerland are expected to be England’s closest competitors in Group E, but Danny Welbeck’s double gave England an early headstart in the race to qualify.
“We’ve put the work in, we worked on our defensive shape when we haven’t got the ball and then springing from defence into attack, which you see with the goals tonight,” Rooney said. “We’re pleased that the things we’ve worked on have paid off so it’s a happy performance for us.”
He added: “We did well as a team and we took our chances. We caught them on the break with speed and Dan got two great goals so I’m really delighted.”
Arsenal new boy Welbeck notched his first international goals for more than a year, first tapping home after an exquisite ball across the box from Raheem Sterling, before showing great composure and awareness to calmly slot past stranded Swiss keeper Yann Sommer in the dying moments.
“I think we created a number of chances which maybe we could have done better with the final pass. Once we got the first goal I think we were in control and played a good team game today and you could see the work ethic – everyone is playing for each other,” he said.
Meanwhile, after marking his full international debut with a goal, Spain’s Paco Alcacer dedicated his strike to his father, who died of a heart attack after watching his son play for Valencia three years ago.
The 21-year-old frontman struck after 16 minutes with a close-range finish and celebrated by pointing to the heavens with his eyes closed.
After the game, which finished with a comfortable 5-1 victory over weak Macedonia, Alcacer said: “Every time I step onto the pitch, my father is with me.
“I think about him every day and I dedicate this important goal in my career to him.”
Alcacer was delighted to begin his international career with a goal and an all-round performance which will surely create a debate over whether he should be promoted ahead of Diego Costa as Spain’s first choice striker.
“I’m very happy with the game and to score a goal with a victory on my debut is marvellous,” he said, adding that he always expected Spain to emerge from their World Cup slump.
“This team has so much quality and it was just a matter of time until we started playing well and scoring goals. We’ve got a lot of goalscorers and have shown that again.”
