Goals from Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze saw England end Serbia’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification dreams with a 2-0 win at Wembley Stadium, London.
Saka pounced on a sloppy clearance of Nico O’Reilly’s shot with a left-footed volley into the left corner to put England ahead.
Eze completed their victory with a 90th-minute finish from fellow substitute, Phil Foden’s pass on a counter-attack.
Speaking post-match to ITV, Eze was pleased with the performance as he spoke of his selfless happiness to score to simply aid the team
“Another good performance. I’m happy to score and help the team which is important.”
England remain top of Qualifying Group K without conceding, whilst Serbia stayed third but their qualification hopes were ended after second-placed Albania won 1-0 away to Andorra to secure their play-off spot.
With automatic qualification already wrapped up, England manager – Thomas Tuchel surprisingly opted to name a full-strength team and snubbed in-form Bournemouth midfielder, Alex Scott who had received his maiden call-up for this match.
That ruthless decision initially proved questionable as Morgan Rogers, Elliot Anderson and Saka saw shots go wide in the opening 20 minutes following a slow start.
Serbia goalkeeper, Predrag Rajkovic kept the visitors level in the 25th minute as he saved Marcus Rashford’s shot, after O’Reilly on his senior debut played Declan Rice up the left only for the midfielder to flick the ball across for Rashford to turn on goal.
The deadlock was eventually broken in the 28th minute after Anderson won a free-kick from Strahinja Pavlovic’s foul which led the set piece to be cleared by Rajkovic to O’Reilly, from which the left-back’s shot was deflected for Saka to volley into the far-bottom left corner on his left foot.
Serbia were dealt a further blow after Ivan Ilic suffered a serious knee injury which saw him forced off in the 37th minute, amidst a positive spell of pressure from the hosts.
England almost doubled their lead in the 42nd minute after Harry Kane headed wide near the right post from Declan Rice’s corner delivery, following a block of O’Reilly’s shot via Rashford’s slip-through pass.
Rogers headed Reece James’ cross wide in the first minute of first-half injury time as England maintained their record of having not conceded in their qualifying group so far.
England’s wasteful final touch continued in the second half as O’Reilly and Rogers put shots wide whilst Rashford’s 59th-minute shot was saved by Rajkovic.
A quadruple selection of substitutions across the 64th and 65th minutes sparked fresh life into England as Eberechi Eze twice laid off the ball for Anderson who unluckily saw his shots deflected, whilst Foden headed wide from Jordan Henderson’s 75th-minute cross.
Serbia meanwhile threatened England’s defence with a 62nd-minute counter-attack up the left from Filip Kostic, whose cutback pass was deflected wide by the left heel of Dusan Vlahovic.
Eze flicked a 86th-minute volley onto the crossbar as England looked to wrap up the game, but he atoned four minutes later as he fired a first-time strike into the far-top right corner from Foden’s pass on a quick counter-attack to double England’s lead.
England eventually saw the game out to remain unbeaten in their group with seven wins from seven matches and no goals conceded, whilst Albania’s win meant that Serbia would miss the World Cup for the first time since the 2014 edition.
What’s Next?
England conclude their qualifying campaign with a trip to Albania in Tirana on Sunday 16 November at 6pm CET (5pm GMT), with the fixture played at Arena Kombetare.
Serbia wrap up their qualifying campaign with a home fixture against Latvia at Dubocica Stadium, Leskovac, which will be played simultaneously at the same time as England’s trip to Albania on 16 November.
Team News
England: Jordan Pickford, Reece James, Ezri Konsa, John Stones, Nico O’Reilly, Elliot Anderson (Wharton 85′), Declan Rice (J.Henderson 65′), Bukayo Saka, Morgan Rogers (Bellingham 65′), Marcus Rashford (Eze 64′), Harry Kane (Foden 65′)
Substitutes: Jude Bellingham, Jarrod Bowen, Dan Burn, Trevoh Chalobah, Eberechi Eze, Phil Foden, Dean Henderson, Jordan Henderson, Jarell Quansah, Djed Spence, James Trafford, Adam Wharton
Serbia: Predrag Rajkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Aleksa Terzic, Ognjen Mimovic, Ivan Ilic (Stankovic 39′), Nemanja Gudelj (Samardzic 69′), Sasa Lukic (Grujic 76′), Filip Kostic, Andrija Zivkovic (Jovic 77′), Dusan Vlahovic
Substitutes: Strahinja Erakovic, Marko Grujic, Luka Ilic, Veljko Ilic, Luka Jovic, Aleksandar Katai, Veljko Milosavljevic, Dorde Petrovic, Nemanja Radonjic, Lazar Samardzic, Aleksandr Stankovic, Milos Veljkovic
Referee – Ivan Kruzliak (Slovenia)
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