England finish with a flourish, although fighting fans mar victory in Vilnius

12 October 2015 21:46

England made it a perfect 10 with a beating in the Baltic, but their record-breaking achievement was marred by fighting between the visiting fans and their Lithuanian counterparts.

Goals from Ross Barkley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, as well as an own goal from Lithuania stopper Giedrius Arlauskis, meant Roy Hodgson's men ended their pristine Euro 2016 qualification campaign with a 3-0 win.

A year on from their wretched World Cup campaign, England will head to France next summer having won all 10 of their qualifiers.

It is the first time England have qualified for a major tournament in this format with a 100 per cent record - and for that Hodgson deserves great praise.

England's group may have been the easiest in qualifying, but the achievement should not be sniffed at, and once again the likes of Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana showed glimpses of class against a weak yet stubbornly-well organised Lithuania side.

England's performances and form will not worry Hodgson, but his bosses at the Football Association will be concerned at the disturbances in Vilnius on Monday night.

The Lithuanians had not sold out the 5,500-seater stadium so tickets went on sale earlier this week and the England fans who travelled to the Baltic nation clearly snapped them up. That meant Lithuanians and English supporters mixed in the same stand and that spelled trouble.

The skirmishes started before kick-off when the England fans who had bought tickets in the home end, clashed with their Lithuania counterparts. The supporters brawled and missiles were thrown before riot police stepped in to break up the fighting and separate the fans.

The Lithuanian supporters booed God Save The Queen, before the England fans started singing anti-IRA songs.

An uneasy truce ensued between the two groups as the match began.

Harry Kane, his breath visible in the chilly air, was eager to make the most of a surprise start.

The Tottenham striker drew three impressive saves from Arlauskis within the first 22 minutes, but he then played an important part in England's opening goal.

After some impressive play down the right, Kane rolled the ball to Barkley, who got the ball out from under his feet before cracking a shot into the goal off the upright. Replays showed the shot took a slight deflection off Tomas Mikuckis, but it was still a stunning strike from Barkley.

The Everton midfielder continued to impress, driving at the hosts' defence while Lallana probed the back line with a series of nifty passes - one of which helped put England 2-0 up.

Lallana flicked the ball into Kane's path after receiving the ball from the Spurs forward and he unleashed a low drive which hit the post and struck the goalkeeper's back before the ball rolled into the net.

Kane wasted two good chances to add a goal of his own after the break. Arlauskis palmed a close-range effort from Kane straight back at the Spurs man, but his shot was blocked by Linas Klimavicius. Arlauskis produced a top save to deny Barkley from the resulting corner.

The Lithuania stopper could do nothing to stop Oxlade-Chamberlain's fine strike just after the hour, however.

The Arsenal winger beat the offside trip and latched on to Kyle Walker's incisive pass before belting the ball into the top corner to seal the win which sent England to France on the back of a 10-match winning streak.

TWEET OF THE MATCH

"The regularity of England winning football matches is becoming tedious. We're the new Germany," former England striker @GaryLineker.

PLAYER RATINGS

Jack Butland: 6 (out of 10)

Kyle Walker: 7

Phil Jagielka: 6

Phil Jones: 6

Kieran Gibbs: 7

Jonjo Shelvey: 6

Ross Barkley: 8

Adam Lallana: 7

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 7

Harry Kane: 6

Jamie Vardy: 6

Substitutes

Danny Ings: 6

Dele Alli: 6

Andros Townsend: 6

STAR PLAYER

Ross Barkley: Another man-of-the-match display from the Everton playmaker, who is at last displaying his true talent on a consistent basis. Like against Estonia on Friday, Barkley's quick feet at times mesmerised the opposition and his confidence led to him hitting the opening goal, albeit via a hefty deflection.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

England's second effort was undoubtedly an own goal off unfortunate Lithuania goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis, but the build-up was wonderful. Harry Kane's neat one-two with Adam Lallana got him behind the Lithuania backline, before unleashing a shot off the post that went home via a large deflection.

VIEW FROM THE BENCH

Roy Hodgson promised this would be a "very interesting" line-up and did not disappoint, making eight changes to Friday's defeat of Estonia. Barkley, Lallana and Kane were the only survivors and did their chances of a place in the Euro 2016 squad no harm in Vilnius.

MOAN OF THE MATCH

A complete lack of segregation saw pockets of England spring up across the tiny LFF Stadium - something a section of local fans took umbrage with ahead of kick-off, charging at the visiting fans behind the goal. Riot police came in to restore order but tensions continued throughout.

England manager Roy Hodgson was delighted to round off a perfect qualifying campaign with the comfortable 3-0 win.

"I'm very proud of the players ' performance," he told ITV. "It was excellent the way they (the players) went about their business tonight.

"The quality of our play was good and to get 10 wins out of 10 is never easy so we've got to take pride in it.

"The players who represented us tonight did a terrific job and strengthened their chances of being considered ahead of France.

"I couldn't fault anybody tonight and it was a very nice way to end what's been an excellent qualifying campaign for us.

He added: "We knew it would be a surprise had we not qualified, but now we know also that in France we'll come across better opposition and we'll see how we deal with that."

England's captain on the night, Phil Jagielka, said: "We knew it was going to be a difficult task to win all 10 but that was the game plan from day one and obviously we managed to do it.

"We have good youth (players) coming through and hopefully if we can nurture it we could have something special. We have chose some really tough friendlies. It will be hard games but we will try to prove ourselves."

Third goalscorer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain added: "The pitch was difficult and it skidded through, it made it hard to run in behind but we did what we needed to do. We are very excited about going to France, we have belief in this squad."

Source: PA