England are through to the Quarter Finals of the World Cup after beating Senegal 3-0 tonight.
It was a game that took a while to get going and Senegal looked quite dangerous in the opening 30 minutes. A brilliant reflex save by Pickford kept England in the game, but shortly after another Sunderland-born player was looking to grab the headlines as Jordan Henderson scored a tap-in to put Southgate’s men 1-0 up.
Then on the stroke of half time, England’s sweeper, Harry Kane ventured up front and bagged his first goal of the tournament. As the players left the pitch for the interval I’m sure Harry Kane was getting treatment for a nosebleed after being so high up the pitch.
Bukayo Saka rounded off the scoring as England went into cruise control, knowing they’d be the ones to face France on Saturday. The way England played tonight should mean that we don’t fear anyone. France didn’t look at their best today and relied heavily on Mbappe and Rabiot to make things happen, whereas England had five or six danger men on the pitch.
Southgate made full use of his substitutes tonight but neither Trippier nor Wilson got off the bench, nor did Pope, but nobody expected him to. But with another game on the horizon, any of Howe’s lads could still get more minutes during this tournament.