Hiddink lifts Russia

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - The Netherlands and England continued churning out victories in their World Cup qualification campaigns on Wednesday while Serbia took another big step towards next year's finals in South Africa.

Russia were also impressive as coach Guus Hiddink returned to his international duties to inspire a 3-0 victory in Finland that will keep Germany on their toes.

The Dutch, who on Saturday became the first European nation to book their place at next year's tournament, dispatched Norway 2-0 in Rotterdam to make it seven wins from seven in Group Nine. Andre Ooijer and Arjen Robben were both on target.

Nearly 60,000 England fans defied a strike which badly disrupted London's underground system to watch a 6-0 thrashing of Andorra in Group Six, England's biggest win at Wembley for nearly 10 years.

Like the Netherlands, England have a maximum 21 points, although they still need one more victory to rubber-stamp their qualification for the finals. Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe both struck twice for Fabio Capello's side with Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch also on target.

"The mood is very good in this squad," David Beckham, who started an England match for the 100th time, told ITV. "It's easy to say that when you're winning but it was like that before we started this campaign."

England now boast a 10-point lead over second-placed Croatia and Ukraine who scraped a 2-1 home victory over Kazakhstan to keep alive their hopes of finishing in the runners-up spot and earn a playoff against another second-placed nation.

Serbia are looking increasingly likely to qualify automatically as group winners after a 2-0 win in the Faroe Islands extended their lead over France at the top of Group Seven to eight points, although France have two games in hand.