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England’s Euro 2020 campaign began tonight with a qualifier against the Czech Republic at Wembley. Gareth Southgate’s side performed excellently by anyone's standards, mauling the Czechs 5-0 by the time the final whistle sounded.
England started relatively slowly but once the Three Lions kicked into gear, the Czechs simply couldn’t keep up with them. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring in the first half before a Harry Kane penalty put England 2-0 up on the stroke of half-time. Two more goals from Sterling and an own goal from Tomas Kalas in the second half gave England a well-deserved victory.
Here are 3 reasons why England beat the Czech Republic.
#3 Southgate has underrated strength in depth
It could be argued that Gareth Southgate faced somewhat of an injury crisis leading into tonight’s match with the Czechs. While midfielders Harry Winks and Jesse Lingard were unavailable from the off, Fabian Delph, John Stones, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Marcus Rashford ended up withdrawing from the squad later due to injuries.
In the end though, it did not matter. Michael Keane performed admirably in central defense in the absence of Stones, Jadon Sancho made an argument for starting ahead of Rashford in the front three, the likes of Ross Barkley and newcomers Declan Rice and Callum Hudson-Odoi worked so well that nobody was really missed in the game.
England now has a firm identity under Southgate, using quick passes and building from the back as well as remaining dangerous on the counter. It appears that the majority of players he can pick from – largely due to their experience in England ’s age group sides playing in the same system can fit in easily. It means the Three Lions are sneakily underrated when it comes to strength-in-depth, which bodes well for their Euro 2020 campaign despite the harsh Premier League season.
#2 Raheem Sterling is a man full of confidence
During last summer’s World Cup, if you’d said that Raheem Sterling would be scoring a hat-trick for England in early 2019 you probably would’ve been laughed at. While Sterling played well for the Three Lions in the summer, he simply left his shooting boots at home and just could not find the target
Such criticism may have broken some players, but not Sterling. He’s been in the best form of his career for Manchester City this season, scoring 19 goals in all competitions so far. After his brace against Spain in October, it was clear that more international goals were likely to follow.
Sterling was fantastic tonight, linking up with Jadon Sancho and Harry Kane to constantly menace the Czech defense. He is clearly a man of confidence right now in front of goal as all his three strikes showed. He had to stretch for his first goal – set up beautifully by Kane and Sancho – but his second was a thing of beauty, catching the ball on the turn with his left foot to deceive goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka.
The Manchester City man got a little lucky with his third goal – it took a wicked deflection – but a hat-trick was nothing more than Sterling deserved tonight. He is probably England’s best player right now, which says a lot about his journey since the World Cup.
#1 England no longer play with their food
Just a handful of years ago – back in the early days of Gareth Southgate’s reign even – England always struggled against lower-level opposition, who were willing to drop deep and defend in numbers against them. Teams like Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania often stifled the Three Lions into dull, drawn-out games that would simply send the fans’ interest levels plummeting. Tonight though, that wasn’t the case at all.
England looked slightly slow to settle into a rhythm in the first half, but once they kicked into gear they overwhelmed the Czechs with their range of passing and in particular the pace they were able to push with when they were coming forward. On more than one occasion the Czech defense looked completely out of their depth, particularly when the exuberant debutant Callum Hudson-Odoi was dribbling at them – something which led to Kalas’ diabolical own goal late in the game.
This wasn’t the first time in recent memory that England has been able to put a weaker, more defensive opponent to the sword in dominant fashion – they did the same to Panama and the USA in 2018. England fans will hope that the performance tonight bodes well for them against the other sides in their qualification group; Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Kosovo, who could all be considered weaker than the Czechs.
If England can continue to play at the tempo that they did tonight, none of those teams will stand much of a chance against them. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Three Lions as Gareth Southgate continues to do a stellar job in charge.
