Bukayo Saka scored his third World Cup goal as England brushed Senegal aside on Sunday night to set up a showdown with France in the quarter-finals and the Arsenal man couldn’t have been happier after the final whistle.
Bukayo Saka has scored six competitive goals in total for England as a full international and three of them have come in Qatar at this year’s World Cup.
To say that he is seizing the chance to put his penalty nightmare from the Euros behind him is an understatement.
Speaking to ITV after the match, Saka said, “It’s an unbelievable evening, I’m smiling so much, I’m so happy.
“We’ve gone to the next round and we played so well, so it’s a great night. The way we played as a team, we played some unbelievable football.
“If we can continue that, it’s looking good for us.
“It means everything, I’m so happy to be able to help my team. I know how much we train and how much it means for us to go far in this competition.
“I’m so happy to score my first goal in the knockouts and I hope I can score a few more.”
Saka’s three goals placed him joint top of the Golden Boot chart for this World Cup, until Kylian Mbappe took to the pitch later in the evening.
His brace as France beat Poland 3-1 took him to five for the competition.
Olivier Giroud’s goal in the same game not only took him to three for the tournament as well, it was also his 52nd goal for France making him their stand-alone all-time scorer ahead of Thierry Henry.
In total, seven players have scored three goals in Qatar, the others include – Lionel Messi, Enner Valencia, Cody Gakpo, Alvaro Morata and Marcus Rashford.