England demolish Croatia 7-0 as Kane and Saka strike twice

Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon and Morgan Rogers were also on target as Thomas Tuchel’s side produced a ruthless attacking performance.

Kane opened the scoring after eight minutes before Bellingham doubled the lead in the 21st minute. Gordon made it 3-0 before Saka added a fourth shortly before half-time.

Kane scored again after the break and Saka completed his brace before Rogers rounded off the scoring in the closing stages.

Tuchel was delighted with the performance, despite Croatia creating a chance shortly after England reached 3-0.

“Maybe three minutes after the 3-0 where we had the big mistake [Mateo Kovacic's opportunity] and some easy ball losses, but that was a 90-minute performance at the highest level from everyone.

“From the first until the last minute, everyone who started and everyone came from the bench, it was the highest level and congratulations to the team.

“On an away pitch very, very impressive. We created so many chances. The first 40 minutes we were so fluid from the start. I remember looking at the clock, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a good three minutes’, then looked again and it was a good seven minutes.

“It just never stopped. We kept the pace up and played through the gaps. We were very clinical. Stayed hungry in our counter-pressing and defending, so we did the basics right. I love the attitude. We always played humble and always got the basics right and that's why it was a complete performance.”

Kane praised England’s dominance and the freedom given to the attacking players.

“Unbelievable from start to finish. We spoke a lot about having a 90-minute game from start to finish, being completely dominant with the ball and without the ball. That was it right there. We're at our best when we're free and when we're physically overpowering and making it a Premier League level. You saw that out there today. They couldn't live with our pace, with our runs.

“There was freedom. All four [himself, Gordon, Bellingham and Saka] of us are good players, and we can play in the 10 pocket, we can play as a nine. It is so hard for the opposition to pick it up. The bottom line is if you lose the ball, we're all smart enough and good enough to cover midfield or defence. That is the way we want to play. It was so hard for them to pick a man and press.

“Every man was at the highest level. It was an important game, they rested a lot of players on Tuesday. I feel they saw this as their best opportunity to get into those top two spots. During the week beautiful weather, an amazing hotel, looking out to the ocean. We could have fallen into that holiday mode. An unusual camp for us. We have never been away that long. The perfect end to the week.”

Kane was taken off late in the match with England already comfortably ahead and one eye on his pursuit of Peter Shilton’s appearance record.

“Would be nice. That is why he takes me off, to save me for the next one!”