Five-star England bound for the World Cup after Rashford caps thrashing

It was the night when Thomas Tuchel located the ignition point for his England tenure, when all of the grumbling that had followed him to Belgrade seemed to float away.

- David Hytner

The head coach needed a result to allow his team to take control of this World Cup qualifying group – and a performance, too, after the flatness of much of what had gone before.

Tuchel got both, his players a class apart from the first whistle, Serbia left to look dishevelled. It is a troubling moment for their country, anti-government protests gaining in intensity and there were chants of that nature here. Dragan Stojkovic, the manager, is under heavy fire.

Serbia offered next to nothing; they finished with 10 men after Nikola Milenkovic’s last-man hack on Harry Kane in the 72nd minute and the truth was that the scoreline could have been even heavier. England’s game management cut through the sideshows; what a pleasure it was for the travelling fans to see only smoothness, zero worry lines.

The stars were Morgan Rogers and Noni Madueke, the former providing the moment of the match with his assist for the latter to make it 2-0. Kane opened the scoring with his 74th international goal while the central defenders Ezri Konsa and Marc Guéhi both scored their first at this level. The icing on the cake came when Marcus Rashford, on as a substitute, rolled home a penalty.

England's 100% qualifying record endures under Tuchel.