Rooney back with a bang

Wayne Rooney announced his first appearance at Euro 2012 by scoring England’s winning goal to secure their place in the quarter-finals with a narrow 1-0 victory against co-hosts Ukraine. The result, combined with France’s 2-0 defeat to Sweden, ensures England won Group D, avoiding Spain the quarter-finals and instead drawing Italy in their final-eight clash. This should be considered an achievement in itself for manager Roy Hodgson, as the England Euro 2012 Betting before the tournament began suggested they would struggle to make the knock-out stages at all.

Rooney had been suspended for the opening two games of England’s group campaign, but was back in the side as Roy Hodgson instantly recalled his main striker back into the starting line-up. While the Manchester United star was way short of his best during his first appearance in five weeks, he was on hand to nod home a delicious Steven Gerrard cross in the second half to give England the valuable three points.

With Italy now waiting for Hodgson’s men in the quarter-finals, Rooney has insisted that no team in the tournament will want to take on this England side at the moment. The striker believes all areas of the team are ready to handle whatever opposing sides can bring to the table.

"I think we know our qualities and what we're capable of. We've got together and worked really hard, we've done a lot of tactical play in training and we're difficult to beat.”

"I don't think there is any team that would fancy playing us, we're difficult to break down and we've got the players who can score goals, so it's going well at the minute. We'll get a good rest now and hopefully we'll be back fresh."

Rooney will now be hoping to be sharper when England take on the Italians on Sunday. A match-fit Rooney could be the difference between this England team reaching the final and not.

With Germany looking good yet again, plenty of punters are back Joachim’s Low’s men to go all the way to the final. If you fancy a flutter yourself, don’t forget to head over to the Germany Euro 2012 Betting page at Betfair.