Trent Alexander-Arnold scored a peach of a goal as England cruised to a 4-0 European Championships qualifier victory over Malta.
Embed from Getty ImagesThere were penalties for Harry Kane and Callum Wilson and England broke the deadlock with an own goal as they made it three wins from three in their European Championship Qualification campaign.
It was the first time since September 2021 against Andorra that there were no Manchester City players in the starting lineup for England – they had lifted the Champions League in Istanbul last Sunday and embarked on several days of hard celebrations in the aftermath.
But there was still plenty of quality in a strong England lineup in Valletta that included Manchester United players Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire in defence.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold revelled in a new role on the right side of the midfield three as clinical England raced into a 3-0 lead at the end of the first half.
His ball over the top started picked out Bukayo Saka and his cutback was turned into his own goal by a Ferdinando Apap who panicked as Harry Kane waited at the back post after just 8 minutes.
A 20 yard strike from Alexander-Arnold flew beyond the reach of the badly positioned Malta keeper to double the lead after 28 minutes – his second goal for England.
And two minutes later a ball into Harry Kane saw Matthew Guillaumier bring down the England captain for a clear penalty – Kane picked himself up and rifled his 56th England goal straight down the middle as Malta goalkeeper Henry Bonello dived to his right.
There was one blot on the evening when Saka went down with an ankle injury after being tackled hard before half time and he was replaced at the break as a precautionary matter by Phil Foden.
Foden went into central midfield while Alexander-Arnold was pushed up higher and wider on the right.
With a comfortable lead England made changes – there was no longer any more need to attack the Maltese who had offered nothing going forward while England were unable to fashion as many chances as they would have liked.
Tyrone Mings, Marcus Rashford, and Callum Wilson replaced Shaw, Jordan Henderson, and Kane on the hour mark.
And Crystal Palace winger Eberechi Eze made his England debut after 70 minutes, replacing James Maddison.
There was a VAR check for a potential penalty handball against Malta captain Steve Borg as Wilson tried to cross into the box – it was a penalty by the letter of the law and initially had not been spotted by the referee.
A pitch side review was soon called for before the inevitable spot kick was awarded and Wilson stepped up to hammer home his second England goal to the right of Bonello who dived the wrong way after 83 minutes.
Foden and Eze could have made it 5-0 shortly afterwards but Foden couldn’t get to the ball and Eze was denied by a last ditch block from the Maltese as England stepped off the gas late on.