England produced a dominant performance that will live long in the memory to defeat Croatia 7-0 in their Nations League tie in Rijeka. In what must surely rank as one of England's best away results, Thomas Tuchel's side utterly overwhelmed their opponents. Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka scored two each but it was a stunning team performance that inflicted Croatia's biggest defeat.
The skipper opened the scoring by firing high into the roof of the net early on after being well fed by Jude Bellingham before Anthony Gordon's ingenuity engineered the second for Bellingham to score himself soon after. England were rampant from the outset. The excellent Gordon had chances of his own before making it three.
There had been some disquiet that Jarell Quansah had been preferred to Trent Alexander-Arnold but the Bayer Leverkusen man whipped in a quality cross for the Barcelona winger to nod in a third. When Bellingham set up Bukayo Saka for the fourth before the break, Slaven Bilic looked shocked. Although Mateo Kovacic did miss a sitter, the score did not flatter England.
It was an 'I-was-there moment' for the 100 away fans allowed in the stadium. Croatia tried to be more aggressive after the break but a sensational team goal underlined England's superiority as Kane latched onto Elliot Anderson's cross to make it five. Saka soon latched onto an error for the sixth and Morgan Rogers capped it off late on.
Tuchel needed a strong showing during this quartet of Nations League games that concludes with a home game against the Czech Republic on Tuesday. The opening defeat to Spain followed by a win over a Czech side reduced to 10 men was insufficient. This was as convincing as it gets against a Croatia team, led by Luka Modric, that looked unable to compete with the speed, strength and skill of an England side that included Alex Scott from the start for the first time.
This was a significant win in Group A3 too. With World Cup winners Spain currently boasting the perfect record, there is likely to be only more space available to qualify for the last eight of the Nations League in the spring. This win goes some way to securing that spot for England.
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