England 3-0 Czechia: Report by Layth Yousif at Wembley Stadium
Harry Kane grabbed his 90th and 91st international goals on his record equalling 125th appearance on a night to remember for the England skipper.
In front of 78,864 fans at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday evening, the evergreen 33-year-old ensured England made it three wins from four Nations League games during a largely successful camp.
The victory also ensured – along with Croatia losing to Spain – England booked a Nations League quarter-final date next March, against top quality opposition, possibly from France, Netherlands or Portugal.
However, Thomas Tuchel’s fractious post-match snipe underlined questions still linger following the desperately disappointing World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina in Atlanta this summer.
Speaking after the game, Tuchel snapped saying: “I think it’s necessary to move on. I can only repeat that we didn’t go out in the group stage. Sometimes it feels like we did. But we didn’t.”
Kane’s brace came after an own goal from former West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal own goal put the home side ahead after 27 minutes.
Tuchel made four changes from the rout in Croatia, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberechi Eze and Morgan Rogers starting, with Ezri Konsa, Alex Scott, Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka dropping out.
It was noticeable Tuchel opted for Jarell Quansah to move across to centre-half, with Alexander-Arnold drafted in at right-back, after performing admirably in that position when England won 2-0 quite comfortably in Prague last week, prior to dropping the Real Madrid defender for the 7-0 thrashing of Slave Bilic’s sorry Croatian side in Rijeka on Saturday.
On the 25th anniversary of David Beckham’s legendary free-kick against Greece at Old Trafford, it was fitting Alexander-Arnold went close with an early dead ball effort from outside the box, that Newcastle keeper Lukas Hornicek did well to turn around the post for a corner that came to nothing.
Two minutes later Alex Kral drilled a low effort that flew narrowly past a nervy looking Jordan Pickford in a lively start.
On 23 minutes Bellingham fizzed an inch perfect crossfield ball to Rogers, whose deft touch landed just the wrong side of the post.
The pressure was to tell eventually, when former West Ham man Coufal inadvertently slammed Kane’s hopeful cross into the net past keeper Hornicek for an emphatic own goal on 27 minutes.
Thirteen minutes later the crowd got what they came for when Kane doubled the lead after the Bayern Munich striker’s emphatic finish from Rogers cross.
The restart saw a superb piece of skill from Lewis-Skelly to prompt a driving move that culminated in Kane clipping the bar with a fierce effort from Alexander-Arnold’s ball inside. Moments later Rogers fed Bellingham, whose impudent backheel was blocked.
Shortly afterwards Kane made it 3-0 with his 57th minute header beating Hornicek at the near post – even if Kane had to settle for two goals on his record-equalling appearance
Next up is Croatia at Wembley in November, when surely Kane will break the country’s appearance record. How many more goals he scores is another matter entirely as the prospect of reaching 100 surely looms.
