England came from a goal down to beat Italy 3-1 last night to secure their place at Euro 2024 in Germany with two games to spare.
The Gareth Southgate side are unbeaten so far in qualifiers, and have only lost one such game in 24 years – when they were beaten 2-1 by Czech Republic in 2019.
England fell behind to Gianluca Scamacca’s early opener, but captain Harry Kane led the response, converting a penalty then scoring a clinical second after a breakaway strike from Marcus Rashford.
England were drawn with the defending European champions Italy as well as Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta, but in the end they made it look easy with five wins, one draw and no losses.
Italy, could face the prospect of playoffs and even failure to qualify for a second straight major tournament. The Azzurri lost a playoff to North Macedonia last year and didn’t qualify for the World Cup, just a year after winning the pandemic-delayed Euro 2020. It also missed out on the 2018 World Cup after losing a playoff to Sweden.
England leads Group C, three points ahead of Ukraine, which won 3-1 at Malta, and six points above Italy.
The Azzurri play North Macedonia and Ukraine in their final qualifying matches next month.