Rooney’s professional performance against Switzerland puts sexcapade on backburner

BASEL - A thorough professional performance by striker Wayne Rooney ensured an impressive 3-1 victory for England against Switzerland here on Tuesday, and also took the heat of him with regard to allegations surrounding his private life.

Rooney put his personal troubles to one side at St. Jakob Park to score an early opener and his first international goal for a year - paving the way for England to make it a maximum six points from their first two Euro 2012 qualifiers.

England followed up the 4-0 win against Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday with an even more convincing performance that lays the foundations for their bid to reach the showpiece in Poland and Ukraine.

Adam Johnson, who excelled as a substitute for Theo Walcott after he was stretchered off with an ankle injury following Rooney’s goal, added an expertly taken second after 69 minutes to confirm his growing maturity on the international stage.

And, even though Xherdan Shaqiri’s spectacular goal gave Switzerland hope two minutes later, substitute Darren Bent wrapped up the triumph with his first goal for England two minutes from time.

For Rooney, it was respite from his troubles and he won the acclaim from both sets of fans in Basle when he was substituted late on. (ANI)