London: David Beckham, returning after 10 months to international competition, set up two goals as England won 3-0 over Estonia in a European Championship qualifying game on Wednesday.

World Cup finalists Italy and France also won. Italy beat host Lithuania 2-0 to keep the pressure on group leader France, which beat Georgia 1-0.

Also, Germany beat Slovakia 2-1 and defending European champion Greece scored in injury time to earn a 2-1 win over visiting Moldova.

Cole's strike

Joe Cole gave England a 37th-minute lead with a spin and volley from the edge of the area before Beckham, who was recalled to boost the team's flagging qualifying campaign, set up second-half goals for Peter Crouch and Michael Owen with crosses from the right.

"It's been nice to get back with the lads," Beckham said. "We've scored some good goals tonight and played some good football — confidence is gradually coming back in the team.

"Hopefully we've put ourselves in a better position now, but we need to carry on playing."

Beckham crossed from deep in the 54th for Crouch to head past the goalkeeper from just inside the area and gave the ball to Owen eight minutes later for the striker to score his first goal since 10 months out with a knee injury.

"Becks was brilliant today," Cole said. "You know what you're going to get from David Beckham."

England stayed fourth in the Group E standings, with just the top two teams from each seven-team group set to advance to next year's tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Croatia drew 0-0 with visiting Russia and was joined at the top of the standings with 17 points by Israel, which won at Andorra 2-0 through goals by Toto Tamuz and Roberto Colautti.

Russia has 15 points, one more than England. France, the European champion in 1984 and 2000, kept the lead in Group B with its narrow win over Georgia. Samir Nasri, a 19-year-old Marseille midfielder, scored the winning goal in just his third international match, scoring in the 33rd from Franck Ribery's deflected cross.

"I'm happy to have scored," Nasri said. "But it's the whole team which succeeded tonight."

France has 18 points, two more than Italy. The World Cup champion beat Lithuania in Kaunas through two goals by Fabio Quagliarella — his first for Italy.

"I'm happy to repay the confidence (that) the coach and squad has shown in me," Quagliarella said. "They were two beautiful goals. I couldn't have finished the season any better."

Quagliarella was making only his second appearance for Italy after scoring 13 goals for Sampdoria this season.

Scotland moved to 15 points and sole possession of third place after a 2-0 win at the Faroe Islands.

Greece conceded an 80th-minute equaliser against visiting Moldova, but substitute Nikos Lymberopoulos made it 2-1 in the fifth minute of injury time to send the defending champion five points clear at the top of Group C.

The results: Euro 2008 qualifiers: Estonia 0 lost to England 3 (Cole, Crouch, Owen); Kazakhstan 1 (Baltiev) drew with Azerbaijan 1 (Nadyrov); Armenia 1 (Mkhitarian) bt Poland 0; Andorra 0 lost to Israel 2 (Tamuz, Colautti); Faroe Islands 0 lost to Scotland 2 (Maloney, O'Connor); Bulgaria 2 (Petrov, Yankov) bt Belarus 1 (Vasiluk-pen); Norway 4 (Iversen, Braaten, Carew 2) bt Hungary 0; Finland 2 (Johansson, Jeremenko Jr) bt Belgium 0; Romania 2 (Mutu, Contra) bt Slovenia 0; Bosnia 1 (Muslimovic) bt Malta 0; Luxembourg 0 lost to Albania 3 (Skela, Kapllani 2); Sweden 5 (Allback 2, Svensson, Mellberg, Rosenberg) bt Iceland 0; Croatia 0 drew with Russia 0; Germany 2 (Durica-og, Hitzlsperger) bt Slovakia 1 (Metzelder-og); Greece 2 (Charisteas, Liberopoulos) bt Moldova 1 (Frunza); Latvia 0 lost to Denmark 2 (Rommedahl 2); Liechtenstein 0 lost to Spain 2 (Villa 2); Lithuania 0 lost to Italy 2 (Quagliarella 2); France 1 (Nasri) bt Georgia 0. — Agencies

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