Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSaka\u2019s cross was too high for his teammates, but Gordon adroitly controlled the ball in mid-air and whipped it back into the six-yard box, where Bellingham stretched to poke into the far corner.<\/p>\n
Gordon put the result beyond doubt in the 39th minute, diving to meet Jarell Quansah\u2019s pinpoint cross with an agile header that flashed past Dominik Livakovic from six yards.<\/p>\n
Quansah\u2019s assist was a timely riposte to the critics who said Tuchel was wrong to select him instead of Trent Alexander-Arnold after the Real Madrid right-back made his first England start in nearly two years against Czech Republic.<\/p>\n
England beat Croatia 4-2 in June in their opening World Cup group game, but this was a far more one-sided encounter.<\/p>\n
Bellingham was in irrepressible mood, driving into the Croatia area and baffling Luka Modric with a smooth drag-back before crossing low towards Saka, who slotted home from close-range on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n
England showed no mercy after the interval and Kane netted again in the 53rd minute, sliding in to convert Anderson\u2019s cross with ease.<\/p>\n
Saka got the sixth from Kane\u2019s pass after another woeful error from hapless Croatia in the 68th minute.<\/p>\n
Rogers came off the bench to put the seal on England\u2019s swaggering display, rounding Livakovic to net from Bellingham\u2019s 87th minute pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a 90-minute performance at the highest level from everyone. From the first until the last minute, everyone who started and everyone came from the bench. It was the highest level and congratulations to the team,\u201d Tuchel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn an away pitch, very, very impressive. We created so many chances. The first 40 minutes we were so fluid from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember looking at the clock, I thought, \u2018Wow, this is a good three minutes\u2019, then looked again and it was a good seven minutes. It just never stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tuchel was especially impressed with the way his team kept the pressure on Croatia\u2019s abject defence and ageing midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept the pace up and played through the gaps. We were very clinical. Stayed hungry in our counter pressing and defending, so we did the basics right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the attitude. We always played humble and always got the basics right and that\u2019s why it was a complete performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
England captain Kane echoed Tuchel\u2019s enthusiasm for his team\u2019s second successive win in the Nations League group stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery man was at the highest level. Unbelievable from start to finish. We spoke a lot about having a 90-minute game from start to finish, being completely dominant with the ball and without the ball. That was it right there,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at our best when we\u2019re free and when we\u2019re physically overpowering and making it a Premier League level. You saw that out there today. They couldn\u2019t live with our pace, with our runs.\u201d <\/p>\n
England will conclude their three-week international break at home to Czech Republic on Tuesday, when a win would take them closer to the top-two finish that guarantees a place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the week, beautiful weather, an amazing hotel, looking out to the ocean. We could have fallen into that holiday mode,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn unusual camp for us. We have never been away that long. The perfect end to the week.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kane extended his England goal record to 89 and will equal Peter Shilton\u2019s Three Lions appearance record if he wins in his 125th cap against the Czechs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould be nice. That is why the manager takes me off, to save me for the next one!,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka both struck twice as England ran riot in a 7-0 rout of abject Croatia in the Nations League on Saturday. Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side ripped Croatia to shreds in Rijeka to make it two wins from their first three matches in their Nations League group. England captain Kane\u2019s double extended his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-265724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}