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Harry Kane has underlined his new status as England’s greatest international goalscorer while Bukayo Saka dazzled again in a comfortable 2-0 win over Ukraine at Wembley Stadium that puts Gareth Southgate’s team in control of their Euro 2024 qualifying group.
Fresh from scoring his 54th goal in the 2-1 victory over Italy on Thursday, Kane made up for a couple of missed chances to break the stalemate in the 37th minute on Sunday.
Arsenal youngster Saka, again England’s brightest spark, then doubled the lead before halftime with a sensational curler that left the visitors and their 4000 fans deflated.
“I think Italy wasn’t the perfect performance but we showed some really good qualities and some tremendous resilience to get the result through the last 15 minutes, in particular down to 10 men,” Southgate said.
“Today they made a complicated game potentially look fairly straightforward and I was really pleased with what they did.”
The 2022 World Cup quarter-finalists have six points from their opening two games and already look firm favourites to top Group C that also contains Malta and North Macedonia.
Defending champions Italy moved up to second after goals by Mateo Retegui and Matteo Pessina steered them to a 2-0 win in Malta.
There was plenty of sympathy for war-ravaged Ukraine around Wembley with 1000 tickets donated to refugees and their sponsor families and the country’s anthem warmly applauded.
But all sentiment was put to one side once the whistle sounded.
Kane, who was presented with a golden boot beforehand, missed two routine chances but made no mistake when he got a third.
Having passed the ball out to Saka, the captain then ghosted into the area and was picked out by the Arsenal man’s cross to touch the ball past Ukraine keeper Anatoliy Trubin.
Three minutes later Saka produced a goal of stunning quality, turning on to Jordan Henderson’s pass and curling a shot into the top corner.
It could have been a bigger margin of victory if substitutes Conor Gallagher and Jack Grealish had converted chances.
Earlier in Astana, Kazakhstan scored three times in the final 17 minutes to complete a remarkable 3-2 comeback win over Denmark.
Atalanta striker Rasmus Hojlund, who netted a hat-trick as the Danes beat Finland 3-1 on Thursday, scored twice in the first half to send the visitors into the break with a comfortable lead.
But Baktiyor Zainutdinov scored a penalty in the 73rd minute, Askhat Tagybergen equalised in the 86th minute with a shot from outside the box and striker Abat Aimbetov headed in one minute before time to complete the 115th-ranked side’s amazing fightback.
Elsewhere in Group H, Slovenia beat San Marino 2-0 and Northern Ireland lost 1-0 to Finland in Belfast.
Portugal continue to lead the way in Group J, thumping Luxembourg 6-0 with Cristiano Ronaldo and Rafael Leao scoring twice.
Iceland recorded the biggest win of the night by thrashing Liechtenstein 7-0, defender Aron Gunnarsson netting a hat-trick, while Slovakia beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0.
Meanwhile, Russia eased to a 2-0 win over Iraq in a friendly as they played their first international match on home soil since November 2021 after being barred from global competitions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Substitute Anton Miranchuk fired Russia ahead shortly after halftime, pouncing on a rebound after Iraq goalkeeper Jalal Hassan Hachim parried Alexander Sobolev’s low shot to his right.
Sergei Pinyaev then grabbed a stylish second, becoming Russia’s youngest ever goalscorer in the process at 18 years four months and 24 days.
The Lokomotiv Moscow winger exploited Iraq’s high defensive line, before cutting in from the left and squeezing a low shot to the goalkeeper’s right.
The hosts dominated possession but struggled to make it pay in the first half, with Ayman Hussein and Ibrahim Bayesh squandering good opportunities for the visitors.
Official attendance at the 68,000-seater Gazprom Arena in St Petersburg was 23,818. The stadium had been due to host last year’s Champions League final before Russia was stripped of that honour.
Both European soccer body UEFA and global football’s governing body FIFA decided in February 2022 that all Russian teams – national or club sides – would be suspended from their competitions following the invasion.
Russia’s men have played just four other matches since Moscow embarked on what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
All four matches have been away from home, winning 2-1 in Kyrgyzstan last September, before draws against Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
© AAP
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