Montenegro 1, England 5
Ross Barkley scored twice and made another as England recovered from conceding early to comfortably beat Montenegro in their Euro 2020 qualifier.
Michael Keane, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling pitched in with goals as England overhauled the Montenegrins comfortably in the second half to score 5 goals in consecutive matches for the first time since November 1984 against Finland and Turkey.
Embed from Getty ImagesMontenegro 1, England 5 – Match Facts
- Montenegro take shock early lead – Only the fourth goal England have conceded in a competitive game under Gareth Southgate. The fifth game in a row that they have scored in against England.
- Callum Hudson-Odoi impresses after shaky start.
- Michael Keane unmarked with routine set piece header to equalise.
- Ross Barkley makes one and scores two for England for the first time since September 2015 against San Marino.
- Harry Kane grabs England’s fourth as Montenegro caught on the break by Raheem Sterling.
- Raheem Sterling creates 2 goals before scoring England’s 5th
- England to report racial abuse from Montenegro fans
Full debuts as Gareth Southgate makes 4 changes
There were full debuts for Callum Hudson-Odoi and Declan Rice as Gareth Southgate made four changes from the side that beat the Czech Republic 5-0 on Friday night at Wembley.
Danny Rose and and Ross Barkley also came into the side as Ben Chilwell, Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier and Jadon Sancho made way.
Injury doubts lingered over Henderson and Sancho while Dier was ruled out after limping out of the Czech Republic game early on Friday.
Raheem Sterling started off where he left off against the Czechs with teasing runs to try and get past the home defence with one such run almost ending with a goal chance.
His fellow winger Hudson-Odoi is yet to start a Premier League game for Chelsea and is being coveted by Bayern Munich.
But it was Montenegro who took a shock lead with their first attack and Marko Vesovic’s strike after 17 minutes.
A long ball was pumped up upfield catching Hudson-Odoi napping, it was knocked down by Fatos Beqiraj and a lucky deflection off Michael Keane saw Vesovic find a bit of space from which he curled the shot home past Jordan Pickford.
Hudson-Odoi had to be bailed out by Danny Rose who cleared the ball after Vesovic looked to get on the end of a cross after the Chelsea youngster switched off.
Despite the febrile atmosphere in Montenegro, England kept their cool and were soon back level.
Ross Barkley’s free kick from 25 yards out on the right was headed in unchallenged by former Manchester City defender Stefan Savic from 3 yards out by Michael Keane to score his first goal for England after 30 minutes with a very routine set piece after Kyle Walker had been fouled.
England couldn’t rest though and Stefan Mugosa tried to surprise Pickford with a 30 yard speculative half volley.
Hudson-Odoi’s deflected cross almost allowed Raheem Sterling a sight of goal through the packed Montenegrin box but he couldn’t make his shot count.
The Chelsea man was having more luck cutting in from the left flank and his low shot from deep on the left was turned in by Barkley from 5 yards out after 38 minutes to give England the lead.
Ross Barkley and Callum Hudson-Odoi make strong impression on England team
Hudson-Odoi found Sterling with a cross field pass only for the Manchester City man to slice his shot wide from an acute angle as England continued to dominate the game after the break.
And Hudson-Odoi was released by Kane and forced a save out of Danijel Petkovic.
Beqiraj shot wide from close range after a mistake by Rose allowed the home side a sniff on goal following a square pass by Mirko Ivanic into the 6 yard box as England were reminded just how narrow their lead was.
But Barkley, who was booked earlier for taking a free kick before the referee allowed him to, responded by scoring England’s third after 59 minutes.
Sterling took the ball to the touchline and his cutback into the danger area was deflected out by Savic only as far as Barkley who drilled the ball back in past Petkovic.
With a two goal cushion England could relax a bit more, and Jordan Henderson earned his 50th cap for England – replacing Dele Alli after 64 minutes.
Barkley released Sterling who raced clear of the offside trap and squared the ball for Harry Kane to get in on the goals in the 71st minute after Montenegro overcommitted and lost the ball in midfield to Henderson.
It was Kane’s 17th goal in 20 England appearances under Southgate – 22nd in 37 appearances for England in all.
Sterling scored England’s 5th with 9 minutes to go from 12 yards out after Henderson picked him out from deep in midfield with a straight ball and he jinked inside.
The in-form Manchester City winger cupped his ears – taunting the home fans who had been racially abusing the black England players all night – and a cigarette lighter appeared to be thrown onto the pitch by one of the crowd.
The team saw out the last few minutes at a lower tempo with James Ward-Prowse replacing Barkley for only his second England cap while Callum Wilson came on for Kane.
The game ended with some unsavoury incidents after it became clear that the home crowd were racially abusing some of the England players – and Rose collected an unnecessary booking for a foul in injury time.
England boss Southgate confirmed that Rose had been the target of some racial abuse from sections of the crowd during the game and confirmed that the FA would be reporting Montenegro to UEFA.