Russia and the Netherlands maintained perfect starts to their World Cup qualifying campaigns with fourth successive wins on Tuesday but England lost out to the rain when their match in Poland was postponed. Russia beat Azerbaijan 1-0 with a late penalty in Moscow while the Dutch won 4-1 in Bucharest to end Romania's three-match winning start. Israel followed up Friday's 6-0 win in Luxembourg by beating the same opponents 3-0 in Tel Aviv while Ireland bounced back from their 6-1 home defeat to Germany in Dublin on Friday by beating the Faroe Islands 4-1 in their Group C game. However, there was no action in Warsaw where Poland's Group H game against England was postponed until Wednesday after a downpour drenched the pitch at the National Stadium and made it unplayable. Montenegro pulled level with England at the top of Group H, although they have played one more match, after beating Ukraine 1-0 in Kiev. Croatia also maintained their unbeaten start with a 2-0 win over Wales whose optimism following their 2-1 defeat of Scotland on Friday evaporated in Osijek. Russia, who have made a good start under Italian coach Fabio Capello, appeared to be heading for a goalless draw against Azerbaijan after dominating the match but the breakthrough finally came six minutes from time. Roman Shirokov made certain of all three points when he calmly converted a penalty following a foul on substitute Vladimir Bystrov. Video replays showed the foul was committed outside the area but Azerbaijan coach Berti Vogts said the home team deserved to win. TOUGH OPPONENT "I can only congratulate Russia on their victory," former Germany manager Vogts, who has been coaching the oil-rich country on the Caspian Sea since 2008, told reporters. Capello, who replaced Dick Advocaat as Russia coach following their poor showing at Euro 2012, added: "Of course, it would have been much easier for us if we scored an early goal. "But you have two teams on the pitch. Azerbaijan have become a very organised team under Berti Vogts, so today we had a very tough opponent." Like the Russians, the Dutch also made it four wins out of four and ended Romania's perfect start after three goals in the first half set up a 4-1 win to give them control of Group D. Jeremain Lens put the Dutch ahead after eight minutes with Bruno Martens scoring in the 28th and Rafael van der Vaart netting a penalty to make it 3-1 just before the break. Ciprian Marica had scored for Romania after 39 minutes but Robin van Persie wrapped the game up five minutes from time. All the big guns were due to be involved in Tuesday's matches, but England's clash with Poland will now take place in Warsaw on Wednesday (1500GMT) because the pitch became waterlogged after the stadium roof was left open. The decision was taken to rearrange the game following a pitch inspection at 1945GMT after an evening of torrential rain. The Warsaw stadium has a retractable roof, but a Polish FA spokeswoman said neither of the team representatives nor the FIFA delegate wanted to make the decision to close it. "None of the sides wanted such a solution," said Agnieszka Olejkowska. "We knew there would be heavy rain but we could not 100 percent predict the downpour." (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports)
