It was a night that tabloid writers dream of ... the fates of England and France were said to be in the balance.
Wayne Rooney scored in 10 minutes to bury any chance of another England collapse and put his own long weekend in the rear-view mirror in Switzerland. The headlines about his life will today be about his action on the field.
The French ended months of their own misery with a dominant performance in Sarajevo. Blanc's rebuild began to show some signs of bearing fruit, with Karim Benzema the architect of a 2-0 triumph over Bosnia-Herzegovina that put les Bleus’ qualification campaign back on track.
There were some upsets, to be sure.
Slovakia went to Russia and showed that their World Cup qualification wasn't an oddity, with a 27th minute goal from Muroslav Stoch the difference in a 1-0 game.
Lithuania's 1-0 win in the Czech Republic also was against the odds, but the Czechs had missed South Africa, after all.
There were two more goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, giving him five for the weekend, as Holland edged Finland, 2-1 while Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice in Sweden's 6-0 rout of San Marino.
There was also a nervous home win for struggling Scotland, who grabbed a goal at the last possible second against tiny Liechtenstein. Stephen McManus headed home in the 97th minute for the Scots, who had actually trailed in the game thanks to a Mario Frick goal before Kenny Miller struck in the 63rd minute at Hampden Park.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.
