Italy's Luca Toni (right) celebrates with teammate Daniele De Rossi after scoring against Scotland during their Euro 2008 Group B match at the San Nicola stadium in Bari yesterday. Italy won 2-0. - Reuters

LONDON (AP):

ITALY MOVED back into the chase for a spot at next year's European Championship, beating Scotland 2-0 yesterday, and England also played themselves back into contention by downing Andorra 3-0.

England's win, however, will do little to ease the pressure on coach Steve McClaren, who had been winless in five straight games before facing a team with only one competitive victory.

The Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and defending champions Greece also won on a night when another 20 Euro 2008 qualifiers were played.

Italy, who have failed to impress since beating France on penalties in the World Cup final, got goals off headers from Luca Toni in the 12th and 70th minutes.

It was Italy's third straight win after a rough start to qualifying and it may have saved coach Roberto Donadoni's job.

The Italians improved to 10 points in Group B, trailing Scotland, France and Ukraine by two.

Ukraine moved into a tie for the lead by beating Lithuania 1-0 on Oleg Gusev's 47th-minute goal off a cross from Maxim Kalinichenko.

England got two second-half goals from Steven Gerrard and another from David Nugent in injury time.

Wayne Rooney chested a ball to Gerrard on the edge of the box in the 54th minute, and the Liverpool midfielder added the second in the 76th after rolling the ball under goalkeeper Koldo Alvarez.

The win put England into a three-way tie for second place in Group E with Israel and Russia on 11 points. Croatia lead with 13 points.

A chip over

Israel beat Estonia 4-0 with teenage striker Ben Sahar scoring two goals. Roberto Colautti and Idan Tal added the others.

Sahar, a 17-year-old Chelsea striker who entered as a substitute in the 65th, put Israel up 3-0 with a chip over Estonia goalkeeper Mart Poom from inside the six-yard box in the 77th. He added the other in the 79th when he scored from inside the area.