England eased into the European Championship after its qualification campaign ended with yet another win.
A 3-0 victory away to Lithuania on Monday saw Roy Hodgson’s side finish with the best record in qualifying following 10 straight wins.
Having secured a place in France with two matches to spare, Hodgson is under no illusions over the sterner tests his side will face at the championship.
"We know going to France we’re going to come across better opposition, stronger opposition, teams which are more capable of causing us problems than we’ve found in the last couple of games," remarked the England manager.
Watch match highlights: Austria 3, Liechtenstein 0 || Lithuania 0, England 3 || Luxembourg 2, Slovakia 4 || Russia 2, Montenegro 0 || Ukraine 0, Spain 1 ||
The match got underway amid an air of caution after riot police were called in to halt skirmishes between rival fans behind one of the goals before kickoff.
It took until the half-hour mark before England got its opener following a series of saves from goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis. Ross Barkley eventually made the breakthrough after stepping inside his marker and curling a right-footed shot beyond Arlauskis and in off the post.
Arlauskis, who was excellent throughout, was unfortunate to be credited with England’s second. After a neat reverse flick from Adam Lallana found Harry Kane, the Tottenham striker hammered a shot at goal which cannoned off the keeper and into the net in the 35th.
Kane should have netted his second after the interval, but following another excellent stop from Arlauskis, he sent his follow up into the ground allowing it to bounce up and cleared.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain added a third in the 62nd lashing into the roof of the net after being played through by Kyle Walker.
"To get ten wins out of ten is never easy in these qualifying groups so we’ve got to be satisfied with it and take a bit of pride in it," Hodgson added.
Elsewhere, second-placed Switzerland beat Estonia 1-0 after an own goal from defender Ragnar Klavan in fourth minute of second-half stoppage time.
The already-qualified Swiss finished on 21 points, nine adrift of England but five ahead of third-placed Slovenia.
Slovenia will face a playoff after ending its campaign with a 2-0 away win to San Marino. Second-half goals from Botjan Cesar and substitute Nejc Pecnik sealed the win.
Estonia and Lithuania finished in fourth and fifth, respectively having collected 10 points.
Bottom-placed San Marino lost nine of their ten matches, with its sole point following a goalless draw at home to Estonia.
GROUP C
LUXEMBOURG — Slovakia beat Luxembourg 4-2 on Monday to advance to the European Championship for the first time as an independent nation.
The win against the already eliminated Luxembourg secured Slovakia second place in Group C and an automatic spot at Euro 2016 in France.
Group winner Spain, which had already qualified in advance, defeated Ukraine 1-0 in Kyiv, sending the hosts to the playoffs.
Spain finished with 27 points from 10 matches, while Slovakia ended with 22 points and Ukraine stayed with 19.
Slovakia hadn’t scored in three games but ended the goal drought in a six-minute span at the Josy Barthel Stadium in Luxembourg.
Marek Hamsik got on the board in the 24th, Adam Nemec scored in the 29th and Robert Mak netted in the 30th. Luxembourg made it interesting with goals by Mario Mutsch in the 61st and Lars Gerson in the 65th, but Hamsik sealed Slovakia’s victory in injury time.
Slovakia last played at the European Championship in 1992 as member of Czechoslovakia.
Ukraine played well and had a series of scoring chances against Spain, but it was stopped by a remarkable performance by Spain goalkeeper David De Gea.
"We knew it was going to be tough given Ukraine needed a win," De Gea said. "I always try and do my best. I had a great game and the important thing was to get the win under our belts. I give my all and today had some luck. I need to carry on like that."
Gaspar gave Spain the lead in the 22nd minute with a header from near the far post after a cross by Thiago Alcantara. Cesc Fabregas had a chance to increase the lead from the penalty spot two minutes later after being brought down by defender Olexandr Kucher inside the area, but goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov made a great right-handed save.
The game was played at a packed Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, the same site where Spain won the European title in 2012.
Among those in the crowd was Chelsea’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho.
In the other Group C match, Belarus and last-place Macedonia played to a scoreless draw.