4 days after the surprise defeat to the Czech Republic, England will continue to visit Bulgaria. If they win against the bottom team, the Three Lions will complete the necessary conditions to qualify for EURO 2020. The conditions are that Kosovo must lose to Montenegro in the match at the same time.
As expected, coach Gareth Southgate has made a series of changes to the starting lineup. Tyrone Mings started in central defence alongside Harry Maguire for the first time.
The two wings have also been renewed with Kieran Trippier (replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold) and Ben Chilwell (replacing Danny Rose). Up front, Ross Barkley, Harry Winks, Marcus Rashford replace Mason Mount, Declan Rice and Jadon Sancho.
Coach Southgate's personnel changes soon brought about results. In the 7th minute, striker Rashford dribbled on the left wing before cleverly eliminating two home team defenders and taking a classy shot from a tight angle that hit the opening goal of the match.
Unexpectedly conceding a goal, Bulgaria rose up and created a rather dangerous situation with Ivelin Popov's shot in the 11th minute that cost Jordan Pickford.
England's dominance was demonstrated by 2 goals both belonged to Barkley in just 12 minutes. In the 20th minute, the midfielder brought his No. 10 shirt to the net after Raheem Sterling had completed the most difficult tasks. In the 32nd minute, the Chelsea player completed a double with a high jump and headed the ball accurately from Harry Kane.
In the 4th minute of injury time of the first half, DT Anh successfully closed the match with the 4th goal. Kane once again played an assist-making role when making a very favorable cross for Sterling to escape and tap the ball into an empty goal.
In the second half, he played leisurely but still easily created a series of opportunities. However, the strikers' waste forced the Three Lions to wait until the 69th minute to score the 5th goal. Kane once again assisted Sterling to score against goalkeeper Iliev, completing a double.
In the remaining time of the match, the English players mainly pumped the ball for Kane to score. However, the Storm's striker had a very unlucky day. He could only penetrate the Bulgaria net once after a series of opportunities with a delicate pass and then finished classy in the 85th minute.
In the end, England won 6-0 and consolidated their position at the top of Group A with 15 points (3 points more than the Czech Republic). However, the Three Lions still have to wait for at least one more match to officially qualify for EURO 2020 because in the match at the same time, the 3rd place team in Group A, Kosovo, beat Montenegro 2-0 to get 11 points.
