KEIR RADNEDGE at WEMBLEY —- Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka struck the two goals within three first-half minutes which delivered England the command – which they never, ever looked like relinquishing – of their Euro 2024 Group C qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley.

The early tension evaporated immediately after the Tottenham and Arsenal men secured wbat proved to be an easily-deserved 2-0 success to follow up victory in Italy last Thursday.

England’s captain was always a danger, from the opening minutes. He had a penalty claim turned down and was then caught off balance in chasing a looping cross from Jordan Henderson. But it was third time lucky when he touched home the opening goal after 36 minutes on an assist from Saka who added to Ukraine pain by scoring a fine second goal three minutes later.

England were missing both Phil Foden and Reece James after the Manchester City forward became the latest absentee after surgery to remove his appendix; on Friday James had returned to Chelsea for what the Football Association says is “assessment of an ongoing issue”.

Manager Gareth Southgate handed Leicester midfielder James Maddison his full England debut in place of Jack Grealish, Ben Chilwell filled the leftback gap left by the suspension of Luke Shaw while Jordan Henderson replaced Kalvin Phillips in midfield.

The tie was preceded by a golden boot presentation to Kane to mark his status as England’s record marksman after his 54th goal in the 2-1 win in Italy as well as the award of a posthumous honorary England cap to the family of Jack Leslie, the black player who was denied the chance to play for his country in 1925 because of the colour of his skin.

Wembley also rose for a minute of applause for George Cohen, the 1966 World Cup winner, who died in December.

LATEST QUALIFIERS – Gp C: England 2, Ukraine 0; Malta 0, Italy 2. Gp H: Kazakhstan 3, Denmark 2; Slovenia 2, San Marino 0; N Ireland 0, Finland 1. Gp J: Liechtenstein 0, Iceland 7; Luxembourg 0, Portugal 6; Slovakia 2, Bosnia-H 0.

Once the preliminaries had been completed and the match launched it was soon clear there could be inly one outcome.

England had a penalty claim turned down after nine minute by Dutch referee Serdan Guzubuyuk when Saka set up Kane who fell over the trailing leg of defender Oleksandr Svatok. Then, in the 24th minute, a looping cross from Henderson threatened the Ukraine goal but the ball caught Kane off balance.

However Kane made no mistake on 36 minutes when he ghosted in behind the Ukraine defence to tap home a cross from the perpetually-threatening Saka. Kane thus finished a move he had begun with a superb turn and crossfield pass to the winger.

Further strike

Three more minutes and Saka escaped his double-markers yet again, and cut in from the right and delivered a perfectly-judged left-foot curling shot into the far top corner of keeper Anatoliy Trubin’s net.

England remained so much in control, albeit without serious threat, that Ukraine did not win their first corner until the 74th minute.

Southgate, with the points virtually assured, began to ring the changes with Kane being substituted in the 79th minute by the Brentford centre-forward Ivan Toney, making his debut.

More substitutes followed and one of them, Conor Gallagher, was denied a first-kick goal within moments of arriving by a sharp reflex save from keeper Trubin. Harry Maguire might have extended the lead in the 90th minute but put a ‘free’ header over the bar from Henderson’s right-wing corner.

A crowd of 83,947 would have found three goals a far more appropriate scoreline – at the least.

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