Montenegro 1-5 England - Euro 2020 Group A review
England is fast emerging as a clinical and top-level team again, with a crushing win in Montegentro in their latest Euro 2020 qualifier.
After the Montenegrins opened the scoring early on, the English equalised through defender Michael Keane and went ahead by Chelsea’s Ross Barkley. The second half though was a total blitz, with captain Harry Kane scoring, Barkley getting a brace, and emergent main man Sterling scoring the final goal.
England is proving they are by far the strongest side in the group, and people around Europe, and nay the world, will be looking at the English as a formidable force at the current time.
Montenegro’s goal came via some poor marking and positioning. But the English were able to overcome this and use their technical and tactical dominance to secure a pounding victory.
Captain Kane increased his international goal tally, though the star of the show was arguably Chelsea’s Hudson-Odoi. He hasn’t featured much for Chelsea, but he has shown he has the capacity to impact things on the international stage.
He showed much drive, pace, and cutting edge in the game, and set up chances for his compatriots. Ross Barkley, whilst not excelling for Chelsea lately, too proved he can cut it at the highest level.
It was arguably England’s younger and more fringe players who stole the show here, though, of the established men, Sterling again showed his quality and added to his international goal tally.
England now looks a shoo-in for qualification, and only a major catastrophe would deter this. They did qualify in fine style for Euro 2016 – though this ended in disaster with a defeat to Iceland in the first knockout round.
So caution is clearly advised in bigging the team up. But it’s very pleasing for England fans, even though false dawns have occurred before. As for now, it’s a fine time for England, with some world-class players, and numerous developing youngsters.
This win though was blighted by racist abuse from the Montenegro supporters, and it shows that despite triumphs, more needs to be done to ensure players of all races can receive the respect needed on the pitch.