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In a thoroughly one-sided game at Wembley, England thumped Montenegro 7-0 to secure their place at next summer’s UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. The game was somewhat of a special occasion – the 1000th international played by England – and Gareth Southgate’s men delivered the goods in style.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – making his first international appearance since June 2017 – opened the scoring after just 11 minutes, and by the time the whistle blew for half-time, the Three Lions were 5-0 up, with captain Harry Kane helping himself to a hat-trick in just under 20 minutes.
The action slowed down somewhat in the second half, but England were still able to add another two goals – the first a bizarre own goal, and the second from Chelsea’s in-form striker Tammy Abraham – his first at senior international level.
Here are 3 reasons why England beat Montenegro.
#1 England moved through the gears quickly
The word coming into tonight’s match was that Gareth Southgate had instructed his players to press Montenegro hard and go for goals from the off, and judging by what we saw on the pitch the players had clearly taken the advice on board.
England were positive from kick-off, moving the ball quickly from the midfield to the front-line and switching the play from left to right in order to put the Montenegrin defence under as much pressure as possible.
Marcus Rashford in particular was simply electric, as Montenegro’s defence couldn’t handle his pace at all, while the delivery of both Ben Chilwell and Trent Alexander-Arnold was fantastic throughout the game; Leicester’s Chilwell somehow ended the match with 3 assists to his name.
Perhaps key to the whole operation though was Southgate’s midfield duo of Harry Winks and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Too many times as of late – even during the current impressive qualifying campaign – England’s midfield has looked stodgy, with the likes of Jordan Henderson and Declan Rice preferring safe passes either sideways or backwards rather than looking to open a defence up.
That wasn’t the case tonight as both Winks and Chamberlain were able to not just retain the ball, but also create plenty of attacking moves with swift, incisive passing. Whether this partnership would work against a better team remains to be seen – neither man is a classic holding midfielder – but it should definitely give Southgate food for thought over the next couple of days.
#2 Harry Kane remains Europe’s apex predator
Despite Harry Kane having scored a total of 8 goals in the current qualifying campaign prior to tonight’s game, there were plenty of people – myself included – making the argument that perhaps Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham deserved a start ahead of the Spurs man due to his superior club form as of late.
As it turned out, Abraham replaced Kane on 57 minutes and found the net late in the game to score his first senior international goal, but during the first half we were reminded exactly why Gareth Southgate will likely never consider dropping or resting Kane for an important game.
The captain plundered a remarkable hat-trick in just 20 first half minutes, taking his total for the current qualifying campaign to 11 and making him the competition’s top goalscorer. Some fans could argue Kane’s goals – two headers from dead-ball situations and a close-range finish – were relatively easy, but then who else would find themselves in that kind of position?
Simply put, Kane remains Europe’s apex predator in front of goal, and with him in the side, England have a chance against any team in the world. Abraham may be on tremendous form right now – he should probably be given a start in Sunday’s now-meaningless game with Kosovo – but for the foreseeable future at least, he’ll likely remain a backup option as long as Kane is around.
#3 Montenegro were diabolical
There was a time, only a handful of years ago, when Montenegro were considered a tough test for a side like England. Euro 2012’s qualifiers, for instance, saw them draw with Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions twice, while the qualifiers for World Cup 2014 saw them again take a point from England before an Andros Townsend-inspired side beat them 4-1 at Wembley.
Unfortunately for Montenegro, those days now appear long gone. They were comfortably beaten 1-5 by England in Podgorica in March, but at least they put up a fight there and actually opened the scoring. Tonight, on the other hand, they were simply diabolical.
England admittedly performed brilliantly, but Montenegro put up so little resistance that it was embarrassing at times. Faruk Hadzibegic’s side enjoyed just 34% of the possession – during the first half, in particular, it felt like they couldn’t keep the ball at all – and had just 2 shots on target throughout the entire game, with only a bullet header from Marko Simic really testing Jordan Pickford.
Obviously any team can only beat the opponents in front of them, but based on Montenegro’s performance 7-0 was hardly a surprising final score. It’s also hardly a surprise that Montenegro have not won a game during their qualifying campaign.
