England ran out convincing winners yesterday against a spirited Kosovo side with an unlikely 5-3 victory that could have been even more emphatic. Harry Kane had a second half penalty saved and England created numerous other chances in an exhilarating contest . Gareth Southgate can be very pleased with the qualifying campaign so far with the Three Lions scoring nineteen goals in their four qualifying wins for Euro2020 so far .
After the game at St Mary’s , Southgate commented , “A bizarre game really,there were obvious poor errors for goals but I’m really pleased with the composure we showed. We used the ball well.”
England’s results so far in Group A have been astonishingly good. A 5- 1win away to Montenegro in March was followed with a superb display in the 5-0 thrashing of Czech Republic at Wembley and another impressive display last weekend saw the hosts beat Bulgaria 4-0 courtesy of a hat trick from back to form striker Harry Kane.
With twelve points already and a three point lead at the top of Group A over Czech Republic it is very likely that only three more points will be needed to guarantee qualification . Whilst it can certainly be argued that Group A has yet again failed to provide a meaningful test for Southgate’s team , England can do no more that win in style with the fast attacking football that has now become their custom . The performances of Raheen Sterling have been critical to England’s run of good form and the Manchester City striker is now unstoppable when he finds his best form as he did at Southampton last night .
Thoughts now will begin to turn to the European Championship Finals of next year even though there are still four more Group games to play . With away games in Czech Republic and Bulgaria next month Southgate will be determined to improve on the team’s defensive play which was very sloppy at times against a Kosovo side who were determined to attack at every possible opportunity .
The qualifying campaign is concluded in November with the away tie in Kosovo following a home game against Montenegro back at Wembley Stadium .
Statistics will show that England typically do very well in the not so competitive qualifying campaigns and are very good at seeing off the lesser teams.It is worth checking Soccerstats247.com for information on this and other football tournaments .
Bookmakers are impressed with England’s performances however and are now second favourites with most layers at odds of around 9/2 .
France have also played impressively so far in this campaign and they remain the current favourites for Euro2020.