England maintained their 100 percent record in the Euro 2020 qualifiers by recording a 5-3 win over second-placed Kosovo in a barmy evening at St Mary’s.
Gareth Southgate’s men were strong favourites before the game but they went 1-0 down after just 34 seconds when Valon Berisha seized upon a sloppy pass from Michael Keane to hand the visitors a shock lead.
The hosts soon hit back, though, with Raheem Sterling heading in from close-range after eight minutes before Harry Kane fired England into the lead ten minutes later with a crisp finish that went through Arijanet Muric’s legs.
Jadon Sancho completed England’s front three and he played a part in the third, lashing a low cross onto Mergim Vojvoda’s shins before scoring two quickfire goals just before half-time, both of which were assisted by Sterling.
Kosovo’s manager Bernard Challandes, who delivered an animated pre-match press conference on Monday, was incensed by a decision in the build-up to England’s third goal scored by the unfortunate Vojvoda and received a yellow card for his protestations.
At half-time, it seemed a question of how many goals England would win by, yet within ten second half minutes, Kosovo had reduced the deficit to just two goals with Berisha again on the scoresheet and Vedat Muriqi converting a penalty after a sloppy Harry Maguire foul.
Just past the hour mark, England were awarded a penalty of their own but Kane – the scorer of two spot-kicks against Bulgaria on Saturday – saw his effort kept out by Muric, ending a run of 14 successful penalties for club and country stretching back to February 2018.
Sterling could have added to his tally ater being slipped through by Kane but he saw his effort deflected onto the post by his Manchester City colleague Muric before Swansea City playmaker Bersant Celina whistled an effort narrowly wide of the far post.
