On paper at least, a trip to Serbia served as arguably the toughest game of Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel’s reign so far, and although they were assured in possession, their output in the final third was poor in the opening stages.
In turn, it took England until almost the half-hour mark to manufacture a clear sight of goal, with only inches preventing Harry Kane from breaking the deadlock as he poked Noni Madueke’s square ball wide of the post.
There was no stopping him just five minutes later though, when he was left unmarked from a corner and Declan Rice planted a perfect delivery onto his head, one which Kane duly headed into the far corner.
Although England’s playing style under Tuchel had been talked down by many critics prior to kick off, the shackles were visibly lifted following that opening goal – and with England purring, they doubled their advantage just a matter of minutes later.
A free-flowing move involving Elliot Anderson and Morgan Rogers helped free Madueke, and the Arsenal man made no mistake in drawing Dorde Petrovic to his feet before lifting it over the Serbian stopper and into the back of the net, duly registering his maiden international goal.
There was another new name on the England scoresheet just after half-time too, but from a much less likely source this time. Anthony Gordon’s long-range effort was only parried away by Petrovic, and after taking a fortunate ricochet off Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa was the grateful recipient of an open goal from two yards.
With the game in the bag, Tuchel was afforded the luxury of continuing to experiment with his new squad.
His side’s quest to keep pedal to the metal in the closing stages was aided by a red card to Nikola Milenkovic, who felled Kane and referee Clement Turpin adjudged him to have denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
The Serbs were punished in brutal fashion from the resulting free-kick, as Guehi ghosted in around the back to prod home Rice’s delivery.
Marcus Rashford added a fifth from the penalty spot in the dying moments to wrap up a 5-0 victory which moves them to the brink of qualification, with their spot at the 2026 finals likely to be wrapped up in October’s internationals.
As for Serbia, they are now effectively in a battle with Albania for second place and a spot in the playoffs.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Marc Guehi (England)
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Key stats
- England have scored and kept a clean sheet in five of their five games in Group K so far, more than any other in the team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
- This was Serbia's heaviest ever competitive home defeat. The Serbs also failed to attempt a shot on target for the first time since at least 2010 (when Opta began recording this data)
- Marcus Rashford has scored all four of his England penalties (excluding shootouts).
Post-match comments
England boss Thomas Tuchel to ITV: I’m more than happy for the team and the staff. We had an excellent week from start to finish. We just proved what I saw everyday in this camp and that makes me very happy.
"There was a lot of teamwork in its purest form, and from there we showed our quality. We played with intensity in the duels. There was a lot of invisible work that you get no praise for Elliot (Anderson) who had another fantastic performance.
"We’ve only had three weeks of training together. That’s half a pre-season. It takes a bit of time. The credit goes to the players, they did amazing. (Raises his hand) That’s the bar."