Danny Ings celebrated his first start for England by scoring his first international goal with a spectacular overhead kick, as the Three Lions triumphed 3-0 against Wales at Wembley.
The Southampton striker played the full 90 minutes, starting the game on the right side of an England front three, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin occupying the centre-forward berth.
It was Calvert-Lewin who opened the scoring on his debut, heading home an inviting cross from Jack Grealish in the 26th minute.
Conor Coady doubled the lead early in the second half, before Calvert-Lewin was replaced just shy of the hour, prompting Ings to become the team’s focal point in his preferred central position.
Five minutes later, Saints’ No 9, wearing 10 for his country, improvised superbly to open his account with an acrobatic finish from six yards, as three players scored their first England goals on the same night for the first time since 1963.
Ings’s Saints teammate James Ward-Prowse entered the fray 14 minutes from time, going close to scoring himself with a low drive from distance, forcing a fine save from Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.
Both players will hope to feature again in the upcoming Nations League double-header against Belgium and Denmark.
Unfortunately, it was play-off pain for Shane Long in Bratislava, as Republic of Ireland’s dreams of qualifying for Euro 2020 came to a cruel end via a penalty shoot-out.
The front man was introduced in the 112th minute, as the play-off semi-final with Slovakia finished goalless and went to extra time, before Ireland were beaten 4-2 on spot-kicks.
Elsewhere, Stuart Armstrong will still harbour hopes of facing England next summer as Scotland triumphed in a penalty shoot-out of their own against Israel after a 0-0 draw at Hampden Park.
The midfielder is currently self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, but will hope to be involved in next month’s final away to Serbia.
Finally, new signing Ibrahima Diallo was a second-half substitute as France Under-21s eased past their Liechtenstein counterparts 5-0 in Euro 2021 qualifying.
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