Thanks boss, Southgate revealed Klopp helped him as England beat Macedonia

England thrashed North Macedonia 7-0 to put their qualification for the 2024 European Football Championship finals on track with a show from Harry Kane, who scored a brace and provided an assist, and Bukayo Saka, who scored a hat-trick. The Arsenal player scored the first hat trick of his career against the Macedonians, with two missiles and a one-on-one, and was well escorted by Kane, who had a hand in four of the goals.

With a strong line-up, with John Stones and Kyle Walker representing the Manchester City hat-trick and Trent Alexander-Arnold playing inside, England tore North Macedonia apart, virtually unchallenged. The Macedonians' resistance lasted half an hour, until Kane contrived a pass from midfield for Marcus Rashford, who faced up to the byline and filtered for Luke Shaw. The United man looked for a killer pass and found Kane at the far post, who scored his 57th goal for the national team. There England's torrent of goals was unleashed and ten minutes later came Saka's lash past the keeper's post. Just before half-time, Rashford capitalised on a Kane recovery and Henderson's killer pass to score his second goal since April.

With the game settled, the Saka show began, as just after the break he chested down Alexander-Arnold's pass from midfield, let the ball bounce and slotted into the top corner. It was a goal he capped with a hat trick four minutes later when Kane, in his '10' role, slipped the ball into the path of Saka, who made no mistake in the one-on-one. The Macedonians surrendered completely and Kalvin Phillips scored his first goal of the season from a cross by Jack Grealish, who came off the bench after his days off, and Kane completed his brace from 11 yards from a penalty on John Stones at a corner.

Southgate's revelation

After the match, the England manager acknowledged the great work of Trent Alexander Arnold and his new role in midfield, a position adapted for him by Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp: "We know the outstanding qualities that he has. I thought he adapted really well to the role. It is different to what he's been asked to do for his club to this point. But, as I said after the game, he was excited about that when we talked about it, and he delivered. So, great credit to him."