Wales made it four wins out of four as Mark Hughes' side closed in on a place in next year's European Championship finals Saturday by crushing Azerbaijan 4-0 in Cardiff.
With England later in action against Liechtenstein the Welsh dragons ruthlessly showed their big-brother neighbours how to deal with inferior opposition, going for the jugular and opening the scoring after just 13 seconds.
Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy, in hot water for an alleged assault on an Asian nightclub doorman, took the advice of Hughes and club manager Sir Bobby Robson to channel his aggression in more positive fashion and prompty bagged the opener, his effort going in off visiting skipper Tarlan Akhmedov.
The Millennium Stadium crowd were in full voice as Bellamy's clubmate Gary Speed headed the second on 40 minutes after Mark Pembridge whipped in the cross and Celtic's in-form John Hartson headed in the third seconds before the break from a Ryan Giggs cross.
Manchester United winger Giggs netted the fourth himself seven minutes after the restart.
Wales, who extended their record unbeaten run to 10 games, must now wait until August to resume their Group Nine campaign away to Serbia-Montenegro, Wednesday's date having postponed owing to political unrest.
While the Welsh breathed fire Sammy McIlroy and Northern Ireland were all but ruled out for the count after losing their Group Six encounter 1-0 in Armenia.
The Northern Irish have now failed to score in seven games and succumbed to their fate when Artur Petrosyan scored the only goal three minutes from time.
Scotland, meanwhile, showed they intend to push Germany all the way in Group Five after a Lee Wilkie header gave them a 2-1 success at Hampden Park over Iceland.
Wilkie rose above the Icelandic defence to meet Paul Devlin's cross with a powerful header to clinch the three points 20 minutes from the end after Chelsea forward Eidur Gudjohnsen had cancelled out Kenny Miller's early opener.
The Scots, who dropped points in an earlier embarassing draw with the Faroe Islands, made it seven points from three matches - one ahead of the Germans - who were hosting Lithuania Saturday night.
Scotland's German coach Berti Vogts said following the first win at Hampden Park in a competitive fixture of his reign that it looked in all probability as if his men were headed for the playoffs.
"We are looking for a playoff place - but this was a good result. Iceland gave us a hard time."
Vogts praised Wolves striker Miller, who scored 12 minutes into his first start for his country.
"I told him 'you have to score' and he scored," said his proud coach.