Gareth Southgate believes England have “hit a sweet spot” a year out from the European Championship but says there can be no let-up as his talented, ever-improving group hunt silverware.
Monday’s 7-0 annihilation of North Macedonia means it is a case of when rather than if their place at next summer’s finals in Germany is rubber-stamped.
Bukayo Saka sparkled with a hat-trick at Old Trafford as England headed on the road for a home match for the first time since last June’s humbling at the hands of Hungary.
The 4-0 Molineux mauling in the Nations League led fans to turn on Southgate, who took that in mind when considering his future after the World Cup.
But that low, combined with the frustration of bowing out in the quarter-finals in Qatar, has helped sharpen England’s focus as they look to win next year’s Euros, having lost in the final of the previous edition on penalties.
“I think when you look back at last summer, four matches, a couple of them behind closed doors, the need to rotate the squad, need to look at new players, there were a lot of circumstances as we knew at the time around those performances and results,” Southgate said of their Nations League struggles last June.
“Post World Cup, I think we’ve hit a sweet spot where there’s a hunger to go further than we’ve been and a desire to keep pushing forward.
“But a confidence from the matches that we’ve played and the big nights we’ve been involved with, and the ability that they know they have, so that’s a good place to be.
“We have to keep pushing them now because they’ve set a standard in the last four games against different sorts of opponents, different environments, where anything can be possible.
“I think they’ve been really good to watch, they’ve been exciting to watch, there’s competition for individual places, there’s competition to get in the squad.
“But around all of that there’s a brilliant feel with them as a group and that is what creates a strong team.
“I think the crowd have connected with that, the crowd was brilliant from before kick-off tonight.”
Saka’s first career hat-trick, a Harry Kane brace and goals from Marcus Rashford and Kalvin Phillips wowed the Old Trafford crowd on Monday night.
It was England’s fourth win from four Group C matches – a pool that started with an impressive 2-1 victory against Euro 2020 final foes Italy in Naples.
That result set the tone for a side that has steadily built the kind of mentality that means they head into matches expecting, rather than hoping, to win.
View this post on Instagram“100 per cent,” Southgate said. “That’s experiences with their club, but also as a collective because we’ve always had moments where clubs have done well.
“But then how do you match that in when Declan (Rice) first played with us. I remember the Nations League semi-final with Holland, it’s the biggest game of his life, he’s still learning his trade and still learning the position.
“Now he’s played a European final for us, European final for his club, big nights for us.
“The experiences they have together are more important, but you can’t take out the confidence that, if you’re a European champion, as the Manchester City boys arrive here (as), then they’re carrying that into the camp as well.
“But what they did, they didn’t come like a load of big shots and say, ‘We’re European champions’.
“They got straight on to the training pitch, mucked in, supported the group from the side in Malta, and then they perform (against North Macedonia).”
The shared experiences across multiple tournaments and qualification campaigns have also seen players’ caps quietly stack up.
Despite not having any centurions, England’s starting line-up against Macedonia was their second-most experienced ever, with the combined 590 caps only beaten by 595 against Algeria in 2010.
“We’ve known that accumulating caps is one thing, but accumulating big game experience is another,” said Southgate, whose most-capped player is 84-cap skipper Kane.
“And also, the really pleasing thing is that we’ve got a lot of young players with a lot of caps as well.
“So, it’s not that this team is just this next summer and nothing else. We want it to be sustainable for England, we want England to be challenging for as long as we can see.
View this post on Instagram“That’s also an important part of what we need to do, so we have to keep bringing young players into the squad, give them a feel of what it means to play in this group and evolve the team as we go.“There’s that competition now and that drives the players.
“They’ll listen to what you say as a coach, but if there are other players in your position that you know are hunting you down and after your spot, then that drives your performance.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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