London, March 23
England made a hugely impressive start to their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign as Raheem Sterling scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 thrashing of a sorry Czech Republic side on Friday.
A mood of optimism swept around a large Wembley crowd before the Group A game kicked off and England responded with a display full of pace and panache to send the fans home happy.
Sterling opened the scoring from Jadon Sancho’s cross in the 23rd minute and Harry Kane’s penalty put England in complete control on the stroke of halftime.
There was a brief flurry from the Czechs at the start of the second half but normal service was soon resumed as Sterling curled home his second of the night just past the hour.
The Manchester City forward was unstoppable and he completed his first hat-trick for England seven minutes later with a deflected drive past Czech keeper Jiri Pavlenka.
Sterling was substituted to a huge applause soon after as manager Gareth Southgate gave Chelsea teenager Callum Hudson-Odoi his first senior cap while West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice also came off the bench to win his first England cap, weeks after switching allegiance from Ireland.
The Czechs’ misery was complete when Tomas Kalas bundled in an own goal in the 84th minute.
France beat Moldova 4-1
In Chisinau, world champions France launched their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign with a no-nonsense 4-1 away win, thanks to four different scorers against Moldova in Group H.
Antoine Griezmann, Raphael Varane and Olivier Giroud scored in the opening half and Kylian Mbappe struck late to put France top of the group ahead of Monday’s home game against Iceland.
The Moldova fans erupted one minute from the time when second-half substitute Vladimir Ambros got a consolation goal.
In the other Group H matches, Iceland won 2-0 in Andorra thanks to Birkir Bjarnason and Vidar Kjartansson while Turkey beat Albania 2-0 through Burak Yilmaz and Hakan Calhanoglu. Kingsley Coman was meant to win his first France cap since November 2017 but he picked up a back injury in the warm-up and was replaced by Blaise Matuidi, who started on the left wing.
France got off to a slow start, but Paul Pogba flicked the ball over the Moldova defence and Griezmann volleyed the ball under the bar from point-blank range after 24 minutes.
Varane headed home from Griezmann’s corner kick three minutes later as the home side started to become totally overwhelmed in their first meeting with France.
Giroud netted his 34th goal for Les Bleus with an angled volley from Blaise Matuidi’s cross nine minutes from halftime, joining David Trezeguet in third place on the list of France’s all-time top scorers.
Mbappe, who was having a frustrating night, netted from close range in the 87th to round off the victory.
France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris did not have a save to make until he was beaten by Ambros, who fired home with one minute left after some confusion in the French defence.
Portugal draw a blank
In Lisbon, defending champions Portugal were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Ukraine in their opening Euro 2020 qualifier as Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the team for the first time since the World Cup.
Ukraine’s veteran goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov kept Portugal at bay with several fine saves in the first hour before the hosts ran out of ideas in the Group B game.
Portugal had an early goal chalked off when William Carvalho’s header was ruled offside and defender Pepe then produced an impressive volley which the 34-year-old Pyatov did well to turn over.
Ronaldo, left out of the Nations Cup matches in the autumn by mutual consent with coach Fernando Santos, then sprang into action as he twice got free on the left. First he cut inside his marker and produced a snapshot which Pyatov saved and shortly afterwards he opted to go outside Serhiy Kryvtsov and fired in a low, left-foot shot which the goalkeeper again stopped.
The Ukraine captain saved his best for the 56th minute when he brilliantly turned away Andre Silva’s goalbound shot with a one-handed save.
Portugal then had a let off when Rui Patricio blocked Yevhen Konoplyanka’s shot and debutant Junior Moraes saw his shot from the rebound blocked. A late chance went begging for Portugal when substitute Rafa Silva missed his kick after a low Ronaldo cross found him in the area. — Reuters
Messi returns but Argentina lose 3-1
Madrid: Argentina’s Lionel Messi returned to international duty for the first time since the World Cup on Friday but it was a disappointing night for the forward as his side lost 3-1 to Venezuela in a friendly match in Madrid. Messi showed flashes of brilliance but it was not his night as Venezuela put three past their more illustrious rivals for the first time with goals from Salomon Rondon, Jhon Murillo and Josef Martinez. Lautaro Martinez got Argentina’s consolation. Meanwhile, Brazil drew 1-1 with Panama in a friendly on Saturday, one of the poorest results and performances by the five-times world champions since Tite took over as coach in mid-2016. Reuters
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