Croatia hold on to Group E edge

Da Silva scored the only goal of the game in Tallinn

Croatia, Russia and Israel all recorded victories to pull away from England at the top of Group E in the race to qualify for the finals of Euro 2008.

Croatia edged out Estonia in Tallinn, where England play on Wednesday, with a first-half goal from Eduardo da Silva.

A hat-trick from Sevilla stiker Aleksandr Kerzhakov helped Russia to a 4-0 win over Andorra in St Petersburg.

And Israel recorded a 2-1 victory in Macedonia to draw level on points with Russia, three ahead of England.

But Croatia stay on top of the group, and five points in front of England, courtesy of Da Silva's cool strike that gave them a 1-0 win against a resolute Estonian outfit.

The Brazilian-born striker benefited from Niko Kranjcar's poor control on the edge of the box to swivel and shoot beyond Watford's Mart Poom on 31 minutes.

Like Croatia, Russia maintained their unbeaten qualifying record against an Andorran side missing eight first-team players through injury and suspension.

"Scoring a quick goal is always very important against a team like Andorra and we did just that," said Kerzhakov, who collected his first after just eight minutes.

He completed his haul shortly after the break and Dmitry Sychev added a fourth on 71 minutes.

Israel, who have played a game more than Croatia, Russia and England, were pegged back by Macedonia before Argentine-born Roberto Colautti scored the match-winning goal minutes before half-time.

"Macedonia are a good home team and our players gave everything," said Israel coach Dror Kashtan.

"It was difficult to keep them in shape after a long league season, but we now look forward to playing Andorra."

As well as Israel's fixture against Andorra in Barcelona on Wednesday, England travel to Estonia and Croatia host Russia in a crunch Group E match.

Only two teams qualify from each group for the finals in Austria and Switzerland.