Michael Owen scored his 40th goal for England as they brushed aside the challenge of Russia at Wembley. England triumphed 3-0 to move into second spot in Group E.

Russia were expected to cause England problems but set their stall out defensively at the start which invited pressure from England and it took only six minutes for the breakthrough to occur. Poor marking from Russia gave Michael Owen time and space in the penalty area and he made no mistake from six yards out to give England the lead.

England continued to press and the excellent Emile Heskey almost added a second but his shot was well saved from Vyacheslav Maleveev in the Russian goal and Owen slipped as he attempted to tuck away the rebound. Shaun Wright Phillips and Steven Gerrard also squandered good chances as England continued to pile on the pressure.

However there was a scare for England as Konstantin Zhyrianov appeared to equalize for Russia, only for the referee to adjudge he had handled the ball in the build up and the replays showed the Russians had every right to feel aggrieved.

England doubled their advantage in the 30th minute. A long clearance was brilliantly flicked on by Heskey towards Owen who lashed home on the half volley. It was the clinical striker's 40th goal for England which leaves him nine goals behind the all-time record holder Sir Bobby Charlton.

Russia threatened more in the second half, bringing good saves from Paul Robinson on a couple of occasions. Substitute Vladimir Bystrov was causing Ashley Cole all kinds of problems down the Russia right hand side, but there was no end product to bring the Russians back into the game.

England weathered the storm and the game seemed to be heading to a conclusion with England comfortable winners but Rio Ferdinand had other ideas. Collecting a ball from Owen he went past his marker to fire the ball into the back of the net for his second international goal and it added a bit of gloss to the final result. Maleveev could be blamed for getting beaten at his near post but most of the 85,000 strong crowd didn't care.

England are now favourites to qualify for Euro 2008 along with Croatia but do face a difficult trip to Moscow in October. For now, though, manager Steve McClaren has some interesting selection dilemmas after two strong performances from an apparent make shift side. He will be happy that is his only problem coming out of the weeks events.