Bukayo Saka delivered another outstanding England performance against Croatia, scoring twice in a 7-0 win and reaching a new international milestone.
Bukayo Saka scored twice as England demolished a poor Croatia side 7-0 on Saturday evening, taking another step up the country’s scoring charts in the process.
The Arsenal winger’s brace took him to 19 goals for England, moving him past David Beckham on 17. It also means Saka has now scored more goals for England than any player who was at Arsenal at the time of their international appearances.
With England already 3-0 ahead, Saka found himself in acres of space in the middle of the penalty area and was presented with one of the simplest finishes of his career.
His second came when he reacted quickest to a loose pass. A slight miscontrol fell to Harry Kane, who returned the ball to Saka, and the winger made no mistake in front of goal.
The underlying numbers reflected the quality of his performance.
Saka finished the match with the highest expected-goals figure of any player at 2.29, had the most touches inside the opposition penalty area and was joint-top for shots with five.
It was another impressive international display from the Arsenal man, although there are questions over why Thomas Tuchel felt it necessary to keep him on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.
Across England’s three matches in this international break, Saka has played 90, 71 and 83 minutes. While managers appear to be spreading minutes around to avoid exhausting players, Tuchel has leaned heavily on Saka.
Jude Bellingham, by comparison, played just 19 minutes against Czechia during the week.
The hope will be that Saka is given a rest when England face Czechia again at Wembley on Tuesday.
After the game, Saka said, “It was an amazing night for us. We came out from the start and we were top. We played with high energy, high spirit and we punished them and we enjoyed that performance.
“It was special and it was really fun to play. We played with energy and we were really clinical, so that made a difference.
“I think we showed the hunger, the passion and the quality that we have. It was a mixture of everything. It’s everything we’re looking for from an English performance, so we’re really proud and we want to finish strongly on Tuesday now.”
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