All the big guns came out firing in Friday's World Cup qualifiers, with Germany, Spain, Netherlands, England and Italy scoring comfortable victories.
Germany were the most impressive, scoring six past a hapless Republic of Ireland, with two of their brightest youngsters - Marco Reus and Toni Kroos - scoring two goals apiece. Mesut Ozil and Miroslav Klose also got in on the scoresheet, as Germany romped to a 6-1 win.
Italy suffered a bit of a scare in Armenia when Henrikh Mkihtaryan levelled the scores after Andrea Pirlo had given the Euro 2012 finalists the lead. However, Danielle De Rossi and Pablo Osvaldo struck two goals to ensure all three points for Cesare Prandelli's side.
The reigning World and European champions had no such worries, however, as Pedro Rodriguez struck a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory for Spain over Belarus. Jordi Alba had opened the scoring in the 12th minute for his side, before his Barcelona teammate Pedro decided to take matters into his own hands, scoring the next three goals in a 4-0 win.
At Wembley, captain Wayne Rooney led by example, scoring two goals in a 5-0 victory over San Marino. Manchester United teammate Danny Welbeck also scored a double with Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain netting the fifth goal to become the fourth youngest scorer in England's history.
England were expected to romp past San Marino, one of the most lowest ranked teams in the world; however, despite having bags of possession, England failed to pierce the visitors rearguard -- the home team's passing and incisiveness leaving a lot to be desired in the opening half hour, even if the woodwork might have come to San Marino's rescue on a couple of occasions.
The goal came through a penalty after a burst from Welbeck inside the box, saw goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini, who earlier put in a dangerous challenge on Theo Walcott, causing the Arsenal forward to be immediately substituted, bring the Manchester United man down, with Rooney duly dispatching the resulting spot kick.
Welbeck then made it 2-0 with a nice finish, before Rooney got his 31st goal for England, taking him to fifth all time. Welbeck added the fourth in the 71st minute, two minutes after Rooney's goal, before Oxlade-Chamberlain made it 5-0 in the 77th minute.
In Russia, Cristiano Ronaldo could not prevent Portugal from falling to a 1-0 defeat to Fabio Capello's side - Alexander Kerzhakov scoring the all-important goal in the sixth minute.
Rafael Van Der Vaart, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Ruben Schaken netted for the Dutch in a comfortable 3-0 win over Andorra, while Belgium were impressive in a similar scoreline against the Serbians - Christian Benteke, Kevin De Bruyne and Kevin Mirallas the goalscorers.
