BELGRADE —- England finally came up with the goods in the nick of time for manager Thomas Tuchel with a 5-0 demolition of sloppy Serbia in Belgrade in their 2026 World Cup qualifier.

Captain Harry Kane and Noni Madueke in the first half then Ezri Konsa, Marc Guehi and Marcus Rashford [penalty] scored the goals which maintained a 100pc five-match record for the Group K leaders who have yet to concede a goal in the campaign.

England took 33 minutes to make their domination count with Kane heading home Declan Rice’s corner for his 74th goal in 109 internationals. Arsenal’s Madueke scored his first England goal two minutes later with a pacy run and fine finish past Serbia goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.

Thomas Tuchel . . . five reasons to celebrate

The game was stopped shortly after because Serbia fans were shining lasers at England’si Konsa. The defender responded by ending any hope of a Serbia recovery seven minutes after the break when he scored at the far post, also his first England goal.

Serbia’s plight worsened when their captain, Nottingham Forest defender Nikola Milenkovic, was sent off for a poor challenge on Kane, which left the striker requiring treatment.

The punishment was instant as Marc Guehi got on the end of the resulting free-kick from Rice to add England’s fourth goal with 15 minutes left. In final minute when substitute Rashford scored from the spot after Ollie Watkins was fouled by Strahinja Erakovic.

Happy Tuchel

England manager Thomas Tuchel said; “I’m more than happy for the team and staff. We had an excellent week from start to finish. We’ve just proved what I’ve seen every day in this camp and this makes me very happy.

“We played with a lot of intensity, a lot of work in teamwork and we showed our quality. We kept Serbia to no shots on target and you have to put in a lot of work to do that, a lot of intensity and the invisible work that you do not get praise for. It is good to watch.

“Every game is different. We had a meeting in the beginning of the week. We’ve only had three weeks of training and that’s normally half a pre-season. It takes time and in between there are weeks of pause. The players did excellent. The credit goes to them, they did amazing – that’s the bar.

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