England carving teams apart says Southgate after 7-0 Wembley win

GARETH Southgate was delighted to seal Euro 2020 qualification by hitting seven past Montenegro to celebrate England’s 1,000th match in emphatic fashion.

The Three Lions secured top spot in Group A and a return to Wembley for each of their pool games next summer with the thumping victory.

Harry Kane’s hat-trick helped Southgate’s men on the way to a 7-0 win against hapless Montenegro, with t h e s k i p p e r ’s treble complementing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Marcus Rashford efforts in a remarkable first half.

Aleksandar Sofranac’s own goal and substitute Tammy Abraham’s first for his country completed the rout at Wembley, where a number of England greats were in attendance to see the youngest starting XI since 1959 perform so impressively.

“I think the quality of our attacking play first half was excellent,” Southgate said. “It’s been a group that we expected to win but we’ve totally taken teams apart.

“Matches like this in the past have been problematic for England teams, where sides have defended deep in numbers and been stubborn.

“But because of our speed, movement, speed of ball circulation, we’ve carved those teams apart.

“We knew we had a team right the way through who would be really comfortable with the ball.

“Speed, athleticism, two high midfield players who can score goals as well and they did that in the first half and they’d killed the game within 25 minutes, really.”

With all-time top-scorer Wayne Rooney watching from the stands, Kane’s treble took his i nt er nati onal t al l y to 31 goals, usurping Frank Lampard, Alan Shearer, Nat Lofthouse and Tom Finney in the process.

England players celebrate at Wembley.