England sealed a place at 2022 FIFA World Cup set for Qatar with a 10-0 thrashing of ten-man San Marino on Monday.
Captain Harry Kane came out with yet another hat-trick to go level with Gary Lineker on 48 international goals, apart from setting a record of new high for England in a calendar year with his 13th goal as he followed up his hat-trick in the 5-0 win against Albania.
The Three Lions started the match needing just a draw after the big win over Albania with minnows San Marino bottom of Group I with no point from all matches.
Manchester United’s Harry Maguire who was in a goal celebration row in the match against Albania opened the scoring once again before two goals from the penalty spot and two other strikes from Harry Kane coupled with an own-goal from Filippo Fabbri gave England a flashy start.
Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe, who made his international debut against Albania, scored his first goal for the country as Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham and Bukayo Saka also found the net in a complete performance for the 1966 World champions.
San Marino finished the match with ten men as Dante Rossi was sent off for a second booking in the 68th minute.
It was the first time England scored 10 times in a competitive fixture and the score line was the same for the first time since they beat the USA in 1964 at New York City stadium.
It was yet another memorable England cap for Kane who had a complete performance. Only Sir Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney are ahead of him in the England goal scorers list. He now stands just five behind record-holder Rooney’s tally of 53.
The England captain said: “It’s fantastic. Every time I wear the England shirt, I’m proud and it’s one of the greatest feelings I can have to score goals.
“It’s nice to be amongst those people and hopefully there are more to come.”
Kane continued: “We still need to keep working. I feel like we’ve been improving year-on-year. It’s about making the most of the time we have, we haven’t got a lot of time before the next big tournament.
“We just need to use every training session to get better. Hopefully the mentality has been building over the years and we can take that onto the World Cup now.”
Four first-half goals, @HKane? That's insane. pic.twitter.com/vsxyhF0w7a
— England (@England) November 15, 2021
Gareth Southgate who led England to the Euro 2020 finals where they lost to Italy was delighted with the perfect end to the World Cup qualifiers campaign.
“We gave a performance that was enjoyable for the supporters that travelled, was clinical in the way we went about it, and then showed some exciting young players coming through.” He said in the post-match interview.
“Of course, we will have much tougher tests but I’ve been involved in nights like this with England that have been horrible, where the crowd were on our backs, where the whole environment was very different.
“It was nice to see young players going in and enjoying themselves and giving a good showing.
“I just like the fact we have got a mentality where we don’t take our foot off the gas and whatever the challenge, I have set the players they have responded to it.”