STERLING STARTS THE PARTY
Raheem hat-trick in perfect opener for Euro campaign
There are no longer any doubts about raheem Sterling. No longer any concerns he will not fulfil his potential at international level, no longer any nay- sayers, no longer any lists of alternatives to his selection.
Sterling has been the outstanding performer in the 2018-19 season and last night confirmed it with his first international hat-trick.
he is scoring regularly, for club and country these days, but rarely in threes. October 17, 2015 was the date of his last hat-trick, for Manchester City in a 5-1 home win over Bournemouth.
here was proof of his development since that first season away from Anfield.
Under Pep Guardiola and impressively endorsed and nurtured by Gareth Southgate, he has made enormous strides as a player and finisher. his movement, his increasingly clinical nature in front of goal.
he scored three and won the penalty for england’s second goal. he left with the match ball and something more. Trust, faith — everyone believes in Sterling now. Not that Southgate ever wavered.
It was Sterling’s second, england’s third, that summed up the change in the player. Dele Alli had tried to thread a pass through and got lucky when the interception deflected into Sterling’s path.
What he did with it, however, was not fortunate in the least.
his turn took two defenders out of the game and time seemed to stop as he sized up the goal and struck his shot sweetly past goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka.
Such coolness under pressure, such composure, such precision. So many traits that were rarely associated with Sterling.
The hat- trick goal had an element of luck about it, too. Sterling hit a tidy shot but the ball flipped off the shoulder of Ondrej Celustka, beyond the despairing Pavlenka.
It was one of those nights. A lot went right for england.
For the fifth, Callum hudson-Odoi — on for Sterling, who took his ovation after 70 minutes — had a shot well saved but defender Tomas Kalas slotted it into his own net anyway.
Not that england are in need of much help these days, it seems.
Without giving too much of the credit away, the opener was straight from the Manchester City playbook.
It wasn’t just that Sterling was the scorer, but that Jadon Sancho played the Leroy Sane role and harry Kane filled in as David Silva.
It is a sign of the fluidity of Southgate’s regime, however, that england now possess forwards capable of dropping in and out of wide positions.
They keep the ball, too — 25 passes leading up to the goal, involving almost all of the team. Who touched it? Who didn’t touch it would be an easier question to answer. Alli.
The other ten, including substitute ross Barkley and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, got a feel of the ball at some time. The important final touches, however, involved Kane, Sancho and, of course, Sterling. he has come of age as an england player, justifying the faith the manager has shown in him when so often he has been the scapegoat.
Sterling regularly finishes bottom of the fan polls giving marks to each england player — sometimes, during the World Cup, he had a lower mark than any opposition player, too.
It seemed to play on his mind, signing off on social media as ‘the hated one’ not so long ago, with Gary Neville saying that Sterling needed pep talks about the negativity even under the regime of roy hodgson.
That has now changed. What an asset Sterling looked last night. even when england were quiet — as was certainly the case before the goal was scored — he always looked a threat,
It was no surprise that when the Czech republic’s defences were finally breached, it was Sterling doing the breaching.
Let’s pick it up 22 passes in, when Kane finds Sancho on the right with a lovely, weighted pass, that made full use of his speed and intelligence.
having got in behind the Czechs, it just needed the finished product and Sancho delivered beautifully.
he picked out Sterling at the far post, the Czech line now so stretched that he was tapping the ball into an empty net. how many times has he done that for Manchester City this season? It was a City type of goal.
The visitors game plan was to contain and by the end of the half it was in ruins. Sterling again. It wasn’t as if the Czech goal was under siege, more that england now attack with greater precision and focus.
Twenty seconds of first- half injury time had elapsed when Alli — very much involved in this one — played a neat, first-touch flick into Sterling’s path as he burst
into the penalty area. A panicking Czech defensive duo of Pavel Kaderabek and Kalas trapped him in an old-fashioned sandwich — given a moment of thought by referee Artur Dias of Portugal before he pointed to the spot.
Kane stepped up and struck the ball hard — lucky he did, as goalkeeper Pavlenka guessed right and even got a hand to it.
The sheer power of Kane’s shot defeated him.
Not that this was just about the goals.
There was plenty of entertainment in watching Sancho, in particular, with the ball at his feet and one nutmeg of Czech left-back Filip Novak actually drew a chorus of complimentary ‘ooos’ from the crowd. There are some real showstoppers coming through. So what else did we learn? That England supporters — well, many of them — are reasonable sorts. Early in the game Eric Dier went down after a heavy tackle by Tomas Soucek.
He tried to continue for several minutes before conceding defeat. In that time Declan ‘Up the RA’ Rice was instructed to warm up.
Any signs of resentment? Not in the least. Rice got a warm reception and wisely applauded the fans back.
True, he wasn’t up the end that keep anti-Irish nationalist sentiment alive, but as the first indication of how Rice’s relationship with the fans might develop, it was a positive one.
Dier then went off injured and Southgate brought on Barkley anyway.
This is a hard England team to get into — which is not, all things considered, a bad sign.
It’s hard to get in at Manchester City, too.