November 14, (THEWILL) — England maintained their flawless World Cup qualifying campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Serbia at Wembley on Thursday evening. The result confirmed the Three Lions’ place at the tournament and eliminated Serbia from contention after Albania defeated Andorra 1-0 in a concurrent fixture.
Bukayo Saka opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a composed volley after Serbia goalkeeper, Predrag Rajkovic, could only parry a lofted pass from debutant, Nico O’Reilly. England controlled proceedings throughout the first half, with captain, Harry Kane, heading wide and Nikola Milenkovic nearly scoring an own goal from another O’Reilly delivery. Jordan Pickford denied Filip Kostic at the other end, whilst Dusan Vlahovic sent a backheel effort wide just after the hour mark.
Much pre-match discussion centred on manager Thomas Tuchel’s suggestion that Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden could not both feature in the starting line-up alongside Kane. Both players were named as second-half substitutes, with Bellingham receiving an enthusiastic reception when introduced in the 65th minute. Foden replaced Kane and operated in a false nine role for the remainder of the match.
The Manchester City midfielder nearly created a second goal when his chipped pass found Eberechi Eze, whose flicked attempt struck Rajkovic and the crossbar. Lazar Samardzic fired wide for the visitors before Foden and Eze combined again in the dying moments of normal time.
Foden surged forward before releasing Eze near the left edge of the penalty area, and the Arsenal midfielder curled an exquisite finish into the top-right corner. The goal sealed the victory and confirmed Serbia’s exit from World Cup contention, unable to reach the play-offs through a second-place finish.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
