England vs. San Marino, Euro 2016 qualifying: Final score 5-0, no surprises at Wembley

England had no problems seeing off minnows San Marino at Wembley on Thursday.

There were no surprises at Wembley on Thursday, as England continued their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with a comfortable 5-0 demolishing of part-timers San Marino. It wasn't the most thrilling of displays from Roy Hodgson's side, but in typical English fashion, they did enough to get the job done.

England looked alarmingly pedestrian in the game's opening exchanges, and initially struggled to break the stubborn amateurs down. Despite dominating possession, they didn't look particularly dangerous. Tellingly, they relied upon a set-piece to break the deadlock, with Phil Jagielka heading James Milner's corner home in the 24th minute after a clanger from goalkeeper Aldo Junior Simoncini.

The hosts would no doubt have hoped that the opening goal would open the floodgates, but San Marino held pretty firm. Within 10 minutes of going behind they produced their best opportunity of the half, though midfielder Matteo Vitaioli pulled his shot wide of Joe Hart's near post from the edge of the penalty area.

England did eventually manage to double their lead just a couple of minutes before halftime, though they needed a penalty to do so. After Wayne Rooney was caught in the face by Sammarinese captain Andy Selva, he stepped up to net the Three Lions' second. Their lead at the break was comfortable, but their performance overwhelmingly insipid.

However, Hodgson's changes at the break served to spice things up almost immediately, as substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain nicked the ball out on the right flank and squared for Danny Welbeck to tap into the back of the net for 3-0 within four minutes of the second half kicking off. Chamberlain almost turned scorer himself 10 minutes later, though Simoncini tipped his glancing header behind.

Just past the hour, England appeared to have netted a fourth. Chamberlain's low drive took a nick of the heel of Adam Lallana on the way into the back of Simoncini's net. Unfortunately for the Liverpool playmaker, he was promptly denied his first Three Lions goal, with the referee incorrectly adjudging him to have been in an offside position before tapping the ball home.

England were made to wait until inside the final 20 minutes before they scored their fourth goal, with substitute Andros Townsend netting shortly after replacing Welbeck. He drilled a shot towards goal from the edge of the penalty area, with Simoncini powerless to stop it finding the bottom corner.

Before long, Rooney seemed to have iced the cake with a fifth goal -- though there were doubts about how much credit the England captain could take. His dinked cross inside the box took a heavy deflection off San Marino centre-back Alex Della Valle before crossing the line, and eventually went down as an own goal.

England: Hart; Gibbs, Jagielka, Cahill, Chambers; Wilshere, Milner, Henderson (Oxlade-Chamberlain 46'); Sterling (Lallana 46'); Rooney, Welbeck (Townsend 66').

Goals: Jagielka (23'), Rooney (pen. 42'), Welbeck (48'), Townsend (71'), Alex Della Valle (o.g. 76').

San Marino: Simoncini; Battistini, Brolli, Della Valle, Vitaioli, Palazzi (Buscarini 74'); Vitaioli, Tosi (Gasperoni 62'), Chiaruzzi, Hirsch; Selva (Rinaldi 87').

Goals: None.

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