TO RASHFORD WITH LOVE

Teenage striker puts Three Lions on the runway for Russia World Cup as they fight back from Wembley scare

MARVELLOUS Marcus Rashford hit a stunning goal to put England on the brink of next summer’s World Cup finals.

The Manchester United striker capped a man-ofthe-match performance with a 59th-minute strike which gave Slovakia keeper Martin Dubravka no chance.

England’s other scorer Eric Dier said the teenager showed maturity to recover after gifting Slovakia an early lead.

Dier said: “Marcus Rashford’s night? It

wasn’t so good to begin with, but it got better! A fantastic show of character after making a mistake and then scored the winner which got us closer to the World Cup, where hopefully he will shine. “It’s a really important win. It was difficult after starting really poorly, but we regained composure.” Victory put Gareth Southgate and his men five points clear of secondplaced Slovakia with two games to play. Rashford’s display was all the more impressive as his mistake allowed Slovakia to take an early lead. His corner set up Dier to level eight minutes before half-time then he struck. Rashford said: “It was an important goal, we started slowly as a team – and me on a personal level too. “We had to go back to basics and what we had been working on as a team.” Dele Alli was caught on camera making an angry gesture at Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel. The Spurs star is understood to have been angry at an tackle by the former Liverpool centre-back.