Online Reporter
ENGLAND sent out a warning to their World Cup football rivals with a brilliant 5-0 thrashing of Serbia in qualifying on Tuesday night, while Erling Haaland scored five as Norway emphatically maintained their 100 percent record.
Elsewhere in Europe, Portugal and France overturned deficits to make it back-to-back wins to open their bids to reach next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The quality of Thomas Tuchel’s England was questioned after a laborious 2-0 win over Andorra at Villa Park on Saturday, but they produced a resounding answer.
“The players did excellent. The credit goes to them, they did amazing. That’s the bar,” manager Tuchel told ITV Sport.
England dominated the early stages in Belgrade and took the lead in the 33rd minute when Harry Kane headed home his 74th international goal from a Declan Rice corner.
The visitors doubled their advantage two minutes later, as Noni Madueke raced onto an excellent flick-on from Morgan Rogers, kept his composure and dinked the ball beyond Serbia goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic. Seven minutes into the second half, Ezri Konsa pounced on a loose ball after a free-kick to score his first international goal.
Another Rice set-piece provided England’s fourth, as Marc Guehi slid to meet his free-kick, given for the foul on Kane by Nikola Milenkovic which earned the Nottingham Forest centre-back a straight red card.
Substitute Marcus Rashford rounded off a perfect night for his team with a late spot-kick.
England could qualify for an eighth-successive World Cup in their next Group K game when they visit Latvia next month.
The other match in the group saw Albania leapfrog Serbia into second place, edging out Latvia 1-0 in Tirana.
Norway produced the perfect response to second-placed Italy’s dramatic 5-4 victory over Israel on Monday with a 11-1 thumping of Moldova to make it five wins from five in Group I.
Haaland was the star of the show, scoring a first-half hat-trick before nodding in his fourth goal not long after the restart. – AFP Sport.
