It ended Croatia 0 England 7 on Saturday night.
Thomas Tuchel and his players following up their 2-0 away win over the Czech Republic.
The only positive for Slaven Bilic and his Croatia team was that none of their fans were there to see this absolute humilation.
England were superb and Croatia barely had a kick. The home fans wouldn’t have taken this well…
Croatia were actually lucky to ‘only’ lose by seven, it could and should have been easily into double figures, such was England’s dominance and the way they so easily cut through the home defence, time after time.
The tiny Stadion HNK Rijeka hosted this Nations League match and due to repeated misbehaviour by Croatian football fans they were banned by UEFA for this match, the only exception was that 6,000 schoolchildren were let in for free. Whilst only 100 England fans allowed to get in to see the game in person.
Those lucky 100 witnessed an exhilarating performance and history made, the biggest ever defeat suffered by Croatia.
This match suggested that when England play to their strengths, trying to score goals, they could be a formidable overwhelming force against all but the best teams in the world.
Rather than endless passing around the backline, England from the start were looking to cut through Croatia at every opportunity. There was plenty of passing but with a purpose and not taking anything like the usual number of passes to try and break through the opposition, through the middle and around the sides.
England could have already been a couple in front when a brilliant passing move ended with Bellingham feeding Kane for an emphatic finish, Thomas Tuchel’s team never looked back.
The final tally of goals was two each for Kane and Saka (who both wasted glorious chances to have a hat-trick each), with Bellingham, Gordon and Rogers grabbing one each.
This was though a brilliant team performance and especially in terms of getting on the attack and creating chances.
I thought Saka was still pretty poor this game but the likes of Bellingham, Gordon, Anderson, Scott, Hall and Kane were all excellent, with Bellingham just edging out Gordon when it came to man of the match.
More of this please.
Final score: Croatia 0 England 7
England team v Croatia:
Pickford, Quansah, Konsa, Guehi, Hall (Lewis-Skelly 79), Anderson (Gibbs-White 70), Scott (Garner 70), Bellingham, Saka, Gordon (Eze 70), Kane (Rogers 70)
Substitutes:
Steele, Trafford, Alexander-Arnold, Branthwaite, Calvert-Lewin, Chalobah, Ngumoha
Finally for Thomas Tuchel and his players it is England v Czech Republic at 7.45pm on Tuesday 6 October.
Instead of having three international breaks each for a fortnight in September, October and November, the football authorities have combined the September and October 2026 ones in just one that lasts three weeks. The November 2026 break remains the same, lasting two weeks.