Malta vs England LIVE: Result and reaction from Euro 2024 qualifier after Trent Alexander-Arnold nets stunner
Malta 0-4 England: Alexander-Arnold, Harry Kane, Callum Wilson and an own goal saw Gareth Southgate’s men cruise to an expected win
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England resume their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign on Friday night as they face Malta away from home with the plan of maintaining their winning start.
Gareth Southgate’s side defeated both of their most likely rivals for a top-two finish, Ukraine and Italy, in their opening two matches in this qualifying campaign while Malta have lost to Italy as well as North Macedonia - who the Three Lions will face next week.
This round of fixtures is quite forgiving for England, especially after such a long season, and Southgate will be expecting his side to take a big step closer to qualifying for the next summer’s finals in Germany.
The England boss will need to make some key decisions in terms of personnel, especially when it comes to his Manchester City stars who only ended their season last week. Eberechi Eze is in mind to make his debut and many of the squad’s fringe or inexperienced players could get the nod in a game England should dominate.
Relive all the action as England thump Malta:
Malta vs England talking points
Have City stars sobered up?
England’s quintet of bleary-eyed Manchester City players rocked up at St George’s Park on Tuesday evening on the back of some wild celebrations.
Jack Grealish was front and centre of the revelry after completing the treble by winning the Champions League against Inter Milan on Saturday evening. John Stones, Kalvin Phillips, Kyle Walker and Phil Foden also partied after making history in Istanbul all the way onto Monday’s rain-soaked parade in Manchester.
The five players all travelled to Malta for the match and Southgate has a decision to make over their availability.
Malta vs England talking points
Rashford to make qualifier return?
Marcus Rashford is in line to appear in a qualifier for the first time since November 2019. That win in Kosovo was England’s final match before the coronavirus pandemic temporarily halted the international calendar.
Rashford had to pull out of numerous camps over the subsequent years and his decision to head to New York in March while England were winning their group opener 2-1 in Italy sparked debate.
Gareth Southgate defended the injured forward’s decision to jet off to the United States and Rashford insisted this week he is fully committed to England, saying he does not care if onlookers criticise or question his dedication to the national team.
Southgate on this international window
“Well, I don’t think the rest of the world will be doing that this summer and we’ve played North Macedonia twice at home and never beaten them,” said Gareth Southgate when asked if he shouldn’t be playing his best players against such opponents as Malta and North Macedonia.
“If we want to be a top team and we want to be European champions, we’ve got to nail the big games like we did in March and you’ve got to make sure that you nail the more complicated ones because everybody has the view that you’ve just given.
“So I think it’s a good test of commitment, it’s a good test of togetherness – I think this group don’t want to let each other down – and we want to keep progressing as a team.
“We have five opportunities to work together before a European Championship – if we can qualify for the European Championship – and we played so well in March that we’ve got to back that up and make sure that we’re not needing to go to North Macedonia at the end of this competition requiring a result to get through.
“So I think this group of players have got enough humility to recognise that and to approach the task in the way we want them to please.”
Malta vs England
Gareth Southgate hasn’t named any of Manchester City’s treble winning stars in the starting line-up for England. Jack Grealish may still be a little inebriated to be fair after all his celebrating following the Champions League final.
Marcus Rashford reveals pain that is ‘relighting the flame’ inside him
The viewing figures for the Champions League final dropped in the Manchester area before the silverware was presented to Ilkay Gundogan. In at least one household, anyway. Marcus Rashford faces the dilemma many a Manchester City player of previous years did: watch the neighbours claim the biggest prizes or ignore it and pretend it did not happen?
The football fan in the forward dictated he saw City beat Inter Milan. The Manchester United supporter in him did not want to see the subsequent scenes of delight. “I like watching football, I like watching the best games and that is what I did,” he explained. “But after they won the game I don’t need to watch them celebrating, so TV off.”
Marcus Rashford discusses pain that is ‘relighting the flame’ inside him
Rashford has been a player reborn under Erik ten Hag and is setting lofty goals
Malta vs England
Trent Alexander-Arnold looks to be starting in midfield tonight and has been given the no. 10 shirt. It’s a change in tactic from Gareth Southgate who is trying to get something different out of the Liverpool defender.
England line-up
England XI: Pickford, Trippier, Guehi, Maguire, Shaw, Alexander-Arnold, Rice, Henderson, Saka, Kane, Maddison
Southgate on Eze
Gareth Southgate also explained why he’s selected Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and addressed whether the attacker would make his senior debut.
“We’ve liked him for a long time, he was very unfortunate just before the Euros because we were going to call him into a prep camp to have a look at him and he got a bad injury – the day we were going to.”
“I remember talking to Roy Hodgson about him then and Roy telling me he’d picked up an injury in training that day.
“He has finished the season really strongly, he can play in a couple of positions across that attacking line, he’s a goal threat, he’s got nice ability and burst of speed to go past people and to take people out of the game with dribbling skills.
“So we’re looking forward to seeing him a bit closer and everybody I speak to talks brilliantly about him as a person as well.”
Southgate on picking the squad
Gareth Southgate was asked whether the late finish to the season impacted his England squad selections for this international window and he replied:
“Well, it hasn’t influenced selections at all. It’s of course a difficult season for the clubs, the players and for us so we’re always mindful of the welfare of the players and the most difficult thing when you have a gap like that, is to allow the players some time to recuperate but also not decondition physically. So that’s the balance we’ve got to try to find.
“Of course, like every other country, we’ve got important qualification matches on the road to Germany so we’ve picked the strongest squad as we can and we’re looking forward to working with the players. And I think the players always enjoy coming back together.
“So there’s always a lot of noise around this time of year but the reality is, everybody’s got the same situation and I think we’ll manage it as well as we can.”
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