At the end of my last report, on the Malta game, I suggested that it might be nice for the fans to see a little bit of the 'Bazball' element introduced into this England set-up. Well. blow me down, we had 'Gazball' and it happened in spades for the visit of North Macedonia. This has to go down as one of the best attacking displays by an England team in recent memory!

Right from the first whistle, England were really up for this one as they tore into the visiting defence continuously in the opening 20 minutes. With Marcus Rashford on the left, and Bukayo Saka on the right, making inroads every time England went forward, it was exciting to watch. As early as the second minute Saka forced the first save from the keeper, and from then on it was basically one-way traffic. There were a few isolated breakaways by North Macedonia but these were dealt with efficiently by John Stones, Harry Maguire, and the two full-backs, Kyle Walker and Luke Shaw.

In the fifth minute Rashford was only just stopped after he jinked his way through defenders, and then four minutes later Stones headed over from a corner. By this time the visiting defenders were chasing shadows and tied up in knots, such was the determined play by the home side. After the quarter-hour a cross from the right was scrambled away by England, and then Harry Kane was hurt after a nasty clash of heads with Stefan Ristovski. Both recovered after treatment and the exciting first 20 minutes ended with Rashford seeing his shot smothered by Stole Dimitrievski in the NM goal. The positive way that England were swiftly moving the ball around augured well for greater things, as first Rashford was stopped at the expense of a corner, and then Saka so nearly set up another chance. Maguire then headed a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner wide but surely the pressure had to tell eventually?

And so it was, in the 29th minute, when England took the lead with a fine move and goal. Lovely play down the left as Rashford gained possession and his clever nutmeg pass through a defenders legs puts the ball into the marauding Shaw's feet. He pulled the ball back from the bye-line and there was that master finisher Mr Harry Edward Kane making Michael Edward Payne a very happy reporter! It was no less than England deserved for what had been a blistering start to the match. Immediately Saka and Rashford combined and Jordan Henderson came so close to making it 2-0. As it turned out we had to wait until the 38th minute for that scoreline, and what a goal it was.

Great passing and movement between Rashford, Kane and Walker ended with the latter's pass to Saka. The Arsenal youngster wasted no time in crashing a vicious shot into the roof of the net to give the keeper no chance. Declan Rice is then a little unluckily booked for a foul on Elif Elmas, a bit harsh for what was his first tackle of the night

In the last couple of first-half minutes of the half, Rashford almost scored, and then did score, after more thrilling attacks. Kane intercepted a bad pass and quickly spotted the run of Henderson and flicked the ball to him. He, in turn, laid the ball back and there was Rashford to score a simple tap-in from close range. That ended one of the best attacking halves seen from England for a long, long time. They were so dominant that I don't recall Jordan Pickford even having a touch. Now, the good news was, there was absolutely no let up from England when the second-half began. Two minutes in to the half and Saka scored the goal of the game.

A first-time long ball forward by Alexander-Arnold (I apologise if ever I write Alexander-Armstrong by mistake, too much Pointless I'm afraid!). I digress, a fabulous long pass from Alexander-Arnold found Saka scampering forward perfectly. The youngster's control and touch was outstanding, and the shot he fired in was unstoppable. The goal was simply magnificent! We thought it couldn't get any better for the Arsenal star, but three minutes later it did just that.

This time the provider was Kane, whose passing is often overlooked, but the sweetest of passes sent Saka in on goal and a collective holding of breath went round the stadium as he homed in goal. Would he? He certainly did, and he tucked the ball home in a manner that Jimmy Greaves himself would have been delighted with. The look of joy on the face of Saka was brilliant too as he realised what he had done.

At 5-0 up it was standing ovation time as Rashford, Henderson, Rice and especially Saka all went off to a superb thank you from the crowd, with Phil Foden, Kalvin Phillips, Jack Grealish and Conor Gallagher brought into the action. And just ten minutes later the boys were at it again as Grealish sent in a cross which was deflected into the path of Phillips and he will never score an easier first goal for his country, from close in. One of the bright spots of this England performance was that the first touches and the passing was excellent from all the players and the way they never let up from searching for more goals was really impressive.

On 71 minutes an England corner came in and as the players tried to meet the ball, Stones was clumsily bundled over by Egzon Bejtulai and the referee awarded a penalty. Harry eye's lit up again, well one of them did, because his other eye had noticed that Gareth Southgate wanted to send on Callum Wilson. If ever a look said to the manager "not yet boss" it was that which Harry gave the bench. Needless to say, Kane was not about to give this chance up and hit the penalty hard and true for a 7-0 lead. "Okay, I'll go off now," as Kane appeared to say and the smiles exchanged between him and Wilson as they high fived each other at the substitution said it all!!

Before the end a mistake by the crestfallen keeper almost gave Phillips a second goal but this time the North Macedonia defence blocked the chance. And that was it. A wonderful and exhilarating performance by England, from start to finish, and it was a great way to end the season's internationals.
    

Source Notes