football

‘Exceptional’ Bakayo Saka lauded by Gareth Southgate after England romp

June 19, 2023

Gareth Southgate lauded Bukayo Saka after the England star scored a tremendous treble against North Macedonia and enjoyed one of the best nights of his life.

Having followed up March’s wins against Italy and Ukraine by beating Malta 4-0 on Friday, the side put on a show on Monday as their Euro 2024 qualification cakewalk continued.

Harry Kane’s brace was complemented by Marcus Rashford and Kalvin Phillips efforts at Old Trafford, where Saka was the star of the 7-0 annihilation of North Macedonia.

A fierce strike from a tight angle was followed at the start of the second half by a stupendous second, before then quickly wrapping up the first hat-trick of his career.

Saka was given a standing ovation after a sparkling performance made all the impressive by the fact Southgate revealed he has been dealing with an Achilles issue.

“He’s had it for a few weeks and it’s an injury that just needs managing, but it would have been easy not to appear,” the England boss said.

“I think when you then have probably one of the best nights of your life, it’s a reminder to everybody that it’s worth going through those things.

“To see the joy on his face, he’s such a popular member of the team and so humble, works incredibly hard and, of course, talented.

“He’s been finishing like that all week, so, yeah, it was outstanding performance.”

Asked how close Saka is to being at an elite level, Southgate said: “Yeah, I think he’s there.

“When he broke into the team at Arsenal, what struck us was that in a team that were having a difficult time he was performing at a really high level.

“Then when the team were playing well he was still a key player and performing at a really high level.

“So, that says a lot about his mentality, his ability to deal with pressure and that’s the environment that we’re in all the time. He’s exceptional to work with.”

Saka’s goals in the final match of this unprecedented season mean it is a matter of when rather than if England wrap up qualification for next summer’s Euros.

There were few signs of fatigue at a rocking Old Trafford, where Macedonia suffered their heaviest ever defeat.

“The scoreline is outrageous, really,” Southgate said. “That wasn’t really how you were expecting the game to be because there’s no evidence that Macedonia would suffer like that.

“There’s no evidence that the game in the end would be as straightforward as it was and certainly in the opening 20 minutes it didn’t look that way, so it’s huge credit to (the group).

“I think our senior players have set a brilliant tone all week and Jordan Henderson on the pitch tonight.

“He won’t get the headlines but the way he set the tone for winning the ball back and running forward and mixing the game up I think was really important.”

Macedonia were blown away at Old Trafford, where they were a far cry from the side that shocked Germany and Italy in recent years.

Head coach Blagoja Milevski said: “Before we start the press conference, I want to apologise to the whole of the Macedonian nation for our performance and what we did tonight.

“I make decisions for every player who plays and the responsibility is just mine so I have to apologise for the whole of the Macedonian nation.

“It happens that these disastrous moments happen and we are all involved in it. I take all the responsibility for today’s game.”

Euro Qualifiers

Stephen Kenny says ‘nothing is impossible’ ahead of France and Netherlands tests

June 19, 2023

Republic of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny has insisted “nothing is impossible” as he plots Euro 2024 qualifying victories over European superpowers France and the Netherlands in September.

Kenny’s men belatedly opened their Group B account with a 3-0 victory over Gibraltar at the Aviva Stadium on Monday evening to ease at least a little of the disappointment of Friday night’s 2-1 defeat in Greece.

Ireland’s hopes of securing one of the top two spots look forlorn unless they can pull off a series of shock results, but that is exactly what Kenny intends to do.

Asked what his message was to the players, he replied: “It’s a seven-day window just, it’s a short window. It’s France on a Thursday night in Paris and Holland on a Sunday night here in the Aviva Stadium, so it’s a really, really exciting window.

“They’re two really tough games, there’s no doubt about it, but very exciting games. We’ve just got to make sure we’re well prepared for them. They’re epic games.

“At the same time, nothing is impossible, that’s how we feel about it.

“Obviously we pushed France very close [at home]. I know this is different in Paris, but it will be an interesting game for us and very exciting, the two games.”

For 45 minutes, Ireland hammered away at the visitors, but without the craft, pace or guile to break them down, although it took a fine reaction save from goalkeeper Dayle Coleing to deny Jamie McGrath seconds before the break.

The game changed, however, with Celtic winger Mikey Johnston’s half-time introduction and he had already sparked terror in the Gibraltar defence on three occasions when he ran on to Will Smallbone’s half-blocked free-kick and stabbed into the empty net for his first senior international goal.

Evan Ferguson increased the lead within seven minutes and substitute Adam Idah finally opened his Ireland account in stoppage time to secure the first points of the campaign at the third attempt.

Asked if Johnston, whose four caps to date have come from the bench, could make a similar impact over 90 minutes, Kenny said: “He’s been terrific. Definitely he can start matches. I had it in my head that probably he was going to start, but it didn’t happen for him in Greece.

“We’re still obviously a bit disappointed about Greece, we’re not getting away from that, we were disappointed with that. It wasn’t his night, certainly, when he came on, but he has terrific talent, I really appreciate his talent.

“He’s a Celtic player and it will be interesting if he goes back there or not, we’ll see how his career goes over the summer.”

Victory over the team ranked 201st in the world – Gibraltar have now lost 3-0 to all four of the other teams in the group – is unlikely to silence Kenny’s critics, but it at least gets them off the mark.

Kenny said: “We obviously made life difficult for ourselves after Friday night. But Greece are a good team. They have to play Holland twice, we have to play Holland twice, and France in France.

“In my opinion, France will win the group, so we just have to have good September and October windows.

“The return game with Greece will be a different game, and obviously tough games against Holland and France. But we still have every chance and we just have to back ourselves in those windows.”

Euro Qualifiers

Stephen Kenny says ‘nothing is impossible’ despite France and Netherlands tests