LONDON • As expected, England did not need Raheem Sterling to unlock a defence as obliging as Montenegro's on Thursday night.

Harry Kane passed Alan Shearer to move up to sixth on the all-time England top scorers' list with a first-half treble to make it 11 goals in seven Euro 2020 qualifiers - and 31 in 44 appearances.

An own goal from Aleksandar Sofranac, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Marcus Rashford and Tammy Abraham's maiden strike rounded off the scoring as the Three Lions qualified for the Finals in style, smashing the Balkan team 7-0 to secure top spot in Group A.

Sterling was dropped by Gareth Southgate after a training-ground altercation involving Joe Gomez earlier in the week.

While the manager was keen to focus on the positives, like the team's tally of 33 group goals, he was also quick to address an unsavoury moment late in the game.

As Gomez came on for Mason Mount, he was met by loud boos from the Wembley crowd, even though Sterling was seen cheering from the stands.

Expressing his disbelief, Southgate said: "No England player should be booed. We are a team and Joe has done nothing wrong. I made that clear earlier in the week so I don't understand that.

"Him and Raheem are very close and the whole team are very close, so we don't want to see anybody treated that way."

Manchester City forward Sterling also jumped to the defence of the Liverpool defender, tweeting: "To all the England fans, I wanted to leave things as it was, but tonight I have to speak again: it was hard for me to see my teammate get booed for something that was my fault.

"Joe hasn't done anything wrong and for me to see someone who keeps his head down and works hard, especially after a difficult week for him, to be booed when he came on tonight was wrong.

"I've taken full responsibility and accepted the consequence. "

Southgate confirmed that Sterling would be reinstated for the final qualifier at Kosovo tomorrow, adding: "It's important to show everybody we're all in this now.

"In the past, we have struggled against lower-ranked teams who defend in numbers, but we have players who can open those teams up and a style of play that can do that.

"We have qualified and done it clinically. The quality of our attacking play was excellent. We expected to win the group but we've totally taken teams apart."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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