England 7-0 North Macedonia: Saka hits hat-trick as Three Lions thrash visitors

Hat-trick hero Bukayo Saka helped England sign off the season in style with a 7-0 thrashing of North Macedonia, which maintains their 100 per cent record and top spot in Euro 2024 qualifying Group C.

Match Report

The Arsenal star scored two stunners, blasting in from a tight angle for his first before receiving a superb Trent Alexander-Arnold pass and firing in from the edge of the box barely two minutes into the second half. He then completed his first career hat-trick with a perfectly-timed run in behind and cool finish, capping a brilliant individual season of his own, as England ripped their visitors apart.

North Macedonia - a side which beat Italy in their World Cup play-off last year - had put up stubborn resistance initially and it wasn't until Harry Kane turned in Luke Shaw's cutback that it all opened up for Gareth Southgate's men.

Saka fired into the roof of the net soon after and Marcus Rashford capped a superb first-half for the Three Lions with a close range finish to grab an international goal on his home patch.

Saka's two strikes at the start of the second half had England's supporters bouncing but there was more celebrating to come, with Kalvin Phillips scoring his first international goal and Kane adding another from the penalty spot after John Stones was fouled at a set-piece.

England's cricketers have been taking the plaudits for their attacking Bazball style - but Gazball from the country's footballers means they now have four wins from four in qualifying and are well on the way towards reaching next summer's tournament in Germany.

Qualification for Euro 2024 isn't assured but after playing half their fixtures, England lead second-placed Ukraine by six points, although they have a game in hand and third-placed Italy have only played twice, because of their Nations League commitments in this window.

For Southgate, though, he will be most satisfied with a positive, confident, cohesive performance from his players at the end of a long campaign, which began with him and the team being heavily criticised and doubted after poor results last summer.

A familiar quarter-final exit at the World Cup hurt but the potential of this team is plain to see and their supporters will be dreaming of glory in 12 months' time...

What's next for England?

The next international break will see England resume their Euro 2024 Qualifying campaign against Ukraine on Saturday September 9

Gareth Southgate's side will then head to Scotland three days later for a friendly

Where and when is Euro 2024?

Germany are hosting the tournament, which is scheduled to take place from June 14 to July 14 2024.

The format will be the same as Euro 2020, where the top two in each of the six final tournament groups will proceed to the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed finishers.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

2' Saka's shot stopped

29' GOAL! England 1-0 North Macedonia (Kane)

33' Henderson's shot wide out

38' GOAL! England 2-0 North Macedonia (Saka)

41' Yellow Card! Rice booked

45' GOAL! England 3-0 North Macedonia (Rashford)

47' GOAL! England 4-0 North Macedonia (Saka)

51' GOAL! England 5-0 North Macedonia (Saka)

64' GOAL! England 6-0 North Macedonia (Kalvin Phillips)

73' Penalty Goal! England 7-0 North Macedonia (Kane)

Line-ups

England XI: Henderson, Walker, Kane, Pickford, Maguire, Stones, Shaw, Alexander-Arnold, Rice, Rashford, Saka

Subs: Callum Wilson, Trippier, Sam Johnstone, Grealish, Mings, Maddison, Kalvin Phillips, Ramsdale, Foden, Eberechi Eze, Guehi, Conor Gallagher

North Macedonia XI: Arijan Ademi, Ilija Nestorovski, Stefan Ristovski, Stefan Ashkovski, Aleksandar Trajkovski, Stole Dimitrievski, Gjoko Zajkov, Darko Velkovski, Ezgjan Alioski, Bardhi, Elmas

Subs: Damjan Siskovski, David Babunski, Egzon Bejtulai, Dejan Iliev, Dorian Babunski, Ljupco Doriev, Milan Ristovski, Jani Atanasov, Nikola Serafimov, Agon Elezi, Bojan Dimoski, Jovan Manev