Wayne Rooney marked his return from suspension by scoring the goal which took England into the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 as they recorded a 1-0 victory over co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk.

The Manchester United striker converted a centre from England skipper Steven Gerrard three minutes into the second half as Roy Hodgson's side set up a last-eight meeting with Italy in Kiev.

But there was controversy when Ukraine striker Marko Devic appeared to be denied an equaliser with a shot that looked to have crossed the line before John Terry cleared.

Instead of starting on the front foot, as Hodgson suggested, England found themselves penned back by a relentless tide of Ukraine attacks. The general relief that greeted Andriy Shevchenko's absence might not have been so obvious if the talents of Serbian-born Devic were better known.

In order to make the contribution Hodgson hoped for, it was evident Rooney required a bit of assistance. And it came. Three minutes after the restart, having already failed to take a glaring first-half chance, Rooney could not miss this one as Ukraine keeper Andriy Pyatov failed to gather a dangerous low cross from Gerrard which took two deflections.

From barely a yard, Rooney thus scored his 29th England goal, one behind Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney and Alan Shearer, who are joint fifth in the all-time list.

The band that had been banned on their last visit to Donetsk filled the noise vacuum created by the silencing of their hosts and when the big screens at either end of the stadium flashed up news of Sweden's goal in Kiev a few minutes later, English cheers went up once more.

They would have been silenced had the goal-line technology due to be voted on by FIFA next month already been installed, but Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin now has reason to lament. To the naked eye, in real time, sympathy has to be afforded to the officials as John Terry hacked Devic's half-blocked shot away.

To them it cannot have looked over the line. Within 60 seconds, all those millions watching around the world on TV knew it was, the fans in the stadium only left in the dark because the wise decision was taken not to show it to them again.

Shevchenko was introduced for one last hurrah but it was Yevhen Konoplyanka who brought an excellent save out of England goalkeeper Joe Hart with a dipping long-range effort.