England’s Euro 2020 Qualifiers Round-up

After winning 7 of their 8 Euro 2020 qualifiers, England sealed their qualification to the finals of the tournament next summer. Between now and then, Gareth Southgate will need to make the final preparations for the tournament and decide what his best starting 11 is. In the meantime, we thought we’d review England’s journey to qualification and do a round-up of their 8 Euro 2020 qualifiers.

England started their journey to Euro 2020 by hosting the Czech Republic at Wembley, and got off to a perfect start as a Raheem Sterling hat-trick as well as a goal from Harry Kane and an own goal from Tomas Kalas gave England a convincing 5-0 win and an ideal start to Group A.

For matchday 2, England travelled to Southeast Europe to face Montenegro, and suffered an early scare as Montenegro went ahead after 17 minutes thanks to a goal from Marko Vesovic. The lead didn’t last long as Michael Keane equalised for England 13 minutes later before Ross Barkley made it 2-1 before half-time. Barkley grabbed his second of the game just before the hour mark with Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling both putting their names onto the score sheet within the last 2 minutes.

After participating in the finals of the UEFA Nations League during summer, England returned to Euro 2020 qualifiers by hosting Bulgaria at Wembley. A Harry Kane opener after 24 minutes got England off to a good start before he scored his second of the game after converting a penalty 4 minutes into the second half. Raheem Sterling made it 3-0 to England after scoring 6 minutes later before Kane sealed his hat-trick by converting his second penalty of the game to give England a 4-0 win and their third victory of Group A.

England’s first meeting with Kosovo at St Mary’s was a memorable one. After a shock Kosovo opener within the first minute, it looked like an upset could be on the cards, until Michael Keane equalised for England 7 minutes later before Harry Kane made it 2-1 10 minutes later. An own goal from Mergim Vojvoda and 2 goals from Jadon Sancho made it 5-1 before half-time and seemed to put the game to bed. 2 quick goals from Kosovo made it 5-3 10 minutes into the second half, and despite there being 35 minutes of the game left, there were no more goals and England won the game to give them 4 wins out of 4.

England went into matchday 5 knowing that a win against Czech Republic would all but guarantee their qualification to the Euro 2020 finals, and after Harry Kane converted a penalty after 5 minutes, it looked like England would get the job done. However, a Czech Republic equaliser from Jakub Brabec 4 minutes later and a Zdenek Ondrasek winner 5 minutes before full-time handed England their first defeat of their Euro 2020 campaign.

After their disappointing defeat to the Czech Republic in their last game, England needed a win from their trip to Bulgaria and got off to a fantastic start as goals from: Marcus Rashford, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling gave England a 4-0 lead going into half-time. Sterling grabbed his second of the game before Harry Kane continued his run of scoring in every Euro 2020 qualifier after his goal 5 minutes before half-time.

England sealed their qualification to the Euro 2020 finals after their emphatic win over Montenegro at Wembley. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got England started with his opener as well as Marcus Rashford also getting his name on the scoresheet before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick within 19 minutes to give England a 5-0 lead at half-time. An own goal from Aleksandar Sofranac and a first international goal from Tammy Abraham sealed a 7-0 win for England and guaranteed their qualification to the finals.

England finished off their Group A campaign with their third visit to Southeast Europe to face Kosovo and received a fantastic welcome from the country and the supporters after England’s role in helping the nation achieve its independence. After a pretty slow start from England, Harry Winks opened the scoring just over the half-hour mark to give England a 1-0 lead going into half-time. After a pretty poor start to the second half, Harry Kane made history as his goal in the 79th minute made him the first Englishman to score in every qualifying game of a campaign. Marcus Rashford scored England’s third 4 minutes later before Mason Mount scored his first England goal to round off a 4-0 win for England.