Switzerland stroll against Estonia

• Switzerland remain level with Slovenia, six points behind England in Group E, after win
• Fabian Schär heads the opener and Granit Xhaka makes it 2-0 at the interval
• Haris Seferovic gets the third as Estonia lose ground in fifth place
• Next games: Lithuania v Switzerland, Estonia v San Marino (14 June)

Switzerland defeated Estonia to register their third successive Group E triumph and remain on course for UEFA EURO 2016.

They might have started their qualifying campaign slowly, losing both their opening games, but Vladmir Petkovic's men have picked up momentum since, and they maintained that in Lucerne. A quickly taken corner sent over by Xherdan Shaqiri found the head of Fabian Schär, who glanced the ball into the far corner to open the scoring just 17 minutes in.

Granit Xhaka then drilled in a second from outside the box ten minutes later, and Shaqiri almost added a third inside half-an-hour, robbing the Estonia defence only to bend his shot wide of the far post. Their dominance established, Switzerland relaxed, though Konstantin Vassiljev forced them to sit up and take notice after the break with a vicious drive that flashed narrowly wide.

With their guests grouped behind the ball, Switzerland struggled to break Estonia down. Shaqiri fired straight at Sergei Pareiko, who was only marginally busier than Yann Sommer at the opposite end of the pitch, and Haris Seferovic then did the same.

Seferovic did find the net shortly afterwards, but the offside flag cut short the celebrations, which were dampened still further by the injury-enforced exit of Stephan Lichtsteiner. The home fans did rise to their feet once again soon after – and this time stayed on them – when Seferovic smashed the ball in from close range after Shaqiri had squeezed it into his path to give the scoreline a deserved gloss.