England are on the brink of qualifying for Euro 2020 after a dominant six goal away win in Bulgaria, despite two first-half stoppages for incidents of racism.
Marcus Rashford opened the scoring with a wonderful seventh minute curler into the top right corner, before Ross Barkley netted a brace in between the first stoppage to deal with racist boos of Raheem Sterling.
Another racist incident in the stands then forced a second stoppage shortly before the break as a section of fans were escorted out of the stadium
Sterling then added a brace of his own either side of half-time before Harry Kane then completed a six goal rout with a late strike after intercepting Georgi Terziev.
This result leaves England top of Group A with 15 points and a home win over Montenegro next month will confirm their place in next summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.
England made a slow start as Bulgaria applied early pressure until Harry Maguire played a cross to Barkley, who found Rashford to get up and into the box from the left before blasting into the top right corner beyond a helpless Palmen Iliev.
Ivelin Popov then nearly equalised for Bulgaria four minutes later but a great save to his left from Jordan Pickford denied the Bulgarian captain.
England then took control and were duly rewarded in the 20th minute when Sterling played a brilliant one-two with Kane before squaring to Barkley who tapped-in their second.
Boos in the stand then rang out for Sterling which forced the referee, Ivan Bebek to halt the match in the 27th minute as he spoke to UEFA delegates and Kane, before a public appeal by the stadium announcer was made pleading for the racist behaviour to stop.
Play then resumed three minutes later and Barkley soon added England’s third after heading in a pass from Kane, which only led to further racist chants and Bebek called a second stoppage two minutes from the break.
Whilst discussions between Bebek, UEFA delegates and both teams took place on the pitch, a section of fans were removed but it is unclear whether they left of their own accord or were escorted out by officials.
The match then resumed shortly afterwards and Popov had a shot blocked, triggering an England counter-attack as Kane played an one-two up the right with Kieran Trippier before finding Sterling to poke in their fourth.
Both teams then had various chances early in the second half until a 69th minute pass from Kane found Sterling, who rifled lo beyond Iliev to extend England’s lead to five.
Kane then got his goal seven minutes from time after intercepting Terziev and firing in beyond Iliev from close range to make it a super six on a night of shame for Bulgaria on and off the pitch.
England now need just a point from their next match against Montenegro on 14 November to qualify, after Kosovo took a 2-0 win over England’s next opponents to dent the Three Lions qualification here.
Leave a Reply