LET’S HEAR IT FOR ODOI
Classy Callum proves his star quality with a double
CALLUM HUDSON-ODOI showed he won’t be stopping long with Aidy Boothroyd’s Young Lions.
Eddie Nketiah’s hat-trick and HudsonOdoi’s two classy finishes sent Boothroyd’s kids top of their Euro 2021 qualifying group in style at Stadium MK.
The Chelsea winger, who is still only 18, looked like a teenager in a hurry to return to the full England squad after his express recovery from a ruptured Achilles.
Boothroyd has come a long way since his prehistoric “caveman” tactics at Watford and his Grand Old Duke of York tribute act at Northampton, where he marched the Cobblers up to the play-offs and down to the bottom of the league.
His Three Lions cubs may be a bit raw, but some of these graduates from England’s fame academy, notably Hudson-Odoi and Manchester City boy wonder Phil Foden, will soon be linking up with Gareth Southgate’s lion kings.
Boothroyd’s refined approach took just 12 minutes to pay dividends, Lloyd Kelly’s diagonal 40-yard pass picking out Max Aarons, whose cross was volleyed into the roof of the net by HudsonOdoi from 12 yards.
England doubled their advantage inside half an hour as Foden’s corner was met by Kelly at the far post and helped over the line by Leeds’ on-loan striker Nketiah.
Six minutes before the break, the Austrian defence went missing again, picking Edelweiss among the concrete cows of Milton Keynes, and the unmarked Nketiah met Dwight McNeil’s cross with a glancing header to make it 3-0.
Easy? You bet it was – and in first-half stoppage time Hudson-Odoi ran half the length of the pitch before picking his spot in the top corner from 25 yards.
England could not sustain the one-way traffic, and Christoph Baumgartner’s header after 66 minutes gave the Austrians respite from their torture.
But Nketiah completed his treble from sub Rhian Brewster’s cross and was denied a fourth from the penalty spot by Fabian Ehmann’s sprawling save six minutes from time.
Boothroyd sees the bigger picture beyond his side’s 100 per cent record, saying: “We’ve got to produce players for the senior team but, with the depth we’ve got, we are still expected to win as well.”