CroATIA 0 – 4 England [HT]
Slaven Bilic, former Evertonian, is Croatia manager up against Thomas Tuchel, with his ageing star, Luka Modric captaining the side. While Pickford returns as promised by Tuchel, Jarrad Branthwaite and James Garner are only named among the 12 substitutes.
The game is live on ITV 1, kick-off is at 5 pm BST.
It didn’t take long for Harry Kane to get England on the scoreboard with a very well-worked goal after a poor Croatia clearance, Kane finishing superbly in the top corner giving the keeper no chance.
A brilliant piece of improvisation by Gordon after 20 minutes saves an almost lost ball that he then pulls back low and Bellingham sticks out a leg to turn it in. Impressive play from England.
Gordon then put in a peach of a cross right on Saka’s head but he was so surprised he headed just over the bar. Another superb play saw it laid on a plate for Gordon by Bellingham but again, with only the goalkeeper to beat, he can’t do it.
Anthony Gordon finally scored — with his head again — ghosting around the back and stooping to nod a superb header past the keeper at close range.
A terrible mess-up by Anderson saw Kovacic skip across the goal and incredibly miss the target! But at the other end, more magic from Bellingham sets up Saka for a tap-in. 4 – 0!