ENGLAND 1, CROATIA 0
It was what dreams are made of as Raheem Sterling, the boy who grew up in the shadows of Wembley, gave England the perfect start to the delayed finals of Euro 2020.
The Manchester City striker was England’s matchwinner against Croatia with his 16th international goal, but first in the finals of a major tournament.
And it gave England a first win at the 10th attempt in their opening game at the finals of the Euros as they hit the ground running in Group D.
Sterling said: “It was a great feeling as I grew up two minutes down the road. It feels good to score. I always said if I played at Wembley at a major tournament I had to score, and it’s great to finally do that.
“There’s a lot of different reasons why I haven’t scored for my club and it’s totally irrelevant now. I’m here with England and I’m enjoying my football. That’s the most important thing.
“Have I justified my selection? [after several seconds]…I’m trying.
Embed from Getty Images“I have been playing football for a long time and have learned when to block out the outside world and keep things out of my head and focus on what I have to do for the team.”
Sterling, who has scored 13 goals in his the last 17 of his 62 caps, added: “It’s great to get off to a win and now we have other games to look forward to.
“It’s been a long season for me, but I couldn’t wait to get here and get started with England. With England, I knew it would be a positive one.
“It was the first game, and we needed a win. We stuck together. We headed the ball when we needed to, cleared it when we needed to and played some good football at times. I thought the boys were brilliant.
“We need to try to build on it and enjoy today. We have to focus. It’s early days. We need to keep winning, have that winning mentality and keep going forward.”
Sterling had been a controversial choice in view of his club form which had failed to reach the heights of previous season.
And there was surprise when he was preferred to Jack Grealish and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford who were also vying for forward places but had to settle for places on the bench.
Sterling was one of four City players in the starting line-up as he was joined by defensive duo Kyle Walker and John Stones and forward Phil Foden, Stockport’s Andres Iniesta.
And if England were looking for a lucky omen, Croatia have lost against the eventual winner in three of their last four major tournaments, Spain at Euro 2012 (group stages), Portugal at Euro 2016 (round of 16) and France at World Cup 2018 (final).
England manager Gareth Southgate was pleased to get off to a winning start.
He said: “It’s lovely to have given our fans and our country a really enjoyable afternoon. The players dealt with the big occasion really well. Right from the start, incredible heat, they played well and settled early in the game.
“There were moments where the tempo dropped because of the heat but the majority of the game we were in control and didn’t give Croatia many opportunities and we looked dangerous.
“Kalvin Phillips is a player who is so understated. He has had a fantastic start to his international career. I thought he was immense throughout the game – as they all were – and I’m so pleased for Raheem.
“He was dangerous all game His goalscoring record suggests we should have faith in him, and I think he was motivated to show that.
“We are going to need all those attacking players through the tournament. We can make changes and we will need to.
“The key was to get pressure on Croatia’s midfield players, and we managed to do that. That limited some of the supply and the defenders dealt with the longer balls well and read the game well.
“It was a day when everybody who got onto the pitch performed well and that was set up by the whole group.”
And of the next two games, Southgate added: “This is a tough group and there are different sorts of challenges. Scotland and the Czech Republic are good sides, so we are pleased with today.
“It’s a good start, and it takes some of the tension out of the preparation for the next game. But we have still got to get points to qualify.”