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#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.
