England 5-0 San Marino: Calvert-Lewin scores a brace, Southgate’s side cruise to a comfortable win

Dominic Calvert-Lewin-Raheem Sterling-England

England picked up a thumping 5-0 win over San Marino in the World Cup qualifiers earlier tonight at Wembley.

James Ward-Prowse, Dominic Calvert-LewinRaheem Sterling and Ollie Watkins scored for the Three Lions to secure a morale-boosting win for Gareth Southgate’s side.

The England manager chose to field his fringe players tonight and the players managed to get the job done. The likes of Harry Kane, Phil Foden, Luke Shaw, Henderson and Harry Maguire were all on the bench.

Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho etc were sidelined with injuries but England had no problems whatsoever without these players tonight. 

Southgate will be thoroughly impressed with the performance of his players tonight. England have now managed to extend their winning run to 19 at home him the World Cup qualifiers/European Championships.

San Marino were completely outplayed on the night and they could have ended up conceding more goals but goalkeeper Elia Benedettini produced an impressive display in between the sticks to deny England more goals.

The visitors are one of the weakest sides in international football and they have now lost 140 of their 143 qualifying matches for the World Cup and European Championships.

Southgate will be delighted with the depth and quality at his disposal and England will fancy their chances in the upcoming Euros. 

England are now at the top of Group I after tonight’s win and they will take on Albania in their next qualifier on Sunday. 

Line-ups

England

Nick Pope, Conor Coady, John Stones (Tyrone Mings), Ben Chilwell, Reece James (Kieran Trippier), Kalvin Phillips, Mason Mount (Jude Bellingham), James Ward-Prowse, Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Ollie Watkins), Raheem Sterling (Phil Foden), Jesse Lingard.

Substitutes

Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Harry Maguire, Sam Johnstone, Luke Shaw, Dean Henderson, Declan Rice.

San Marino

Elia Benedettini, Dante Rossi, Cristian Brolli, Andrea Grandoni (Luca Ceccaroli), Manuel Battistini, Lorenzo Lunadei (Mattia Giardi), Enrico Golinucci (Michael Battistini), Mirko Palazzi, Adolfo Hirsch (Marcello Mularoni), Nicola Nanni, Filippo Berardi (Alessandro D’Addario).

Substitutes

Luca Nanni, Simone Benedettini, Tommaso Zafferani, Alex Stimac, Kevin Zonzini, Giacomo Conti, Filippo Fabbri.