England Beats Scotland; Spain Ties France in European Soccer

Paul Gascoigne’s spectacular volley and goalkeeper David Seaman’s penalty save helped England defeat Scotland, 2-0, in the European soccer championship Saturday.

Despite fears, there were no reported incidents in the crowd of 76,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium as England took a big step toward the quarterfinals.

England’s coach, Terry Venables, gave the crowd a lot of credit for the victory.

“All the times I’ve been coming here I have never heard it at such a volume as I heard today,” he said. “They were terrific and it showed. When we were playing well in the first 15 minutes of the second half they lifted us even more.”

The Scots, who now need a victory over Switzerland to have any hope of advancing to the quarterfinals, had about 10,000 supporters crammed into one end of Wembley. They cheered their team for nearly 45 minutes after the final whistle.

In Saturday’s other game, Spain ended France’s streak of 10 victories with a 1-1 tie. Jose Luis Caminero scored for Spain with five minutes to play at Leeds United’s Elland Road.

England’s Alan Shearer, who also scored against the Swiss in a 1-1 tie last weekend, scored in the 53rd minute, and Gascoigne, who plays for Scottish champion Glasgow Rangers, scored in the 79th.

England and the Netherlands have four points each and the Scots and Swiss have one each. The English and Dutch meet Tuesday and a tie will mean that the Scots and Swiss, who meet the same day, will be unable to qualify.