England maintained their 100% start to Euro 2024 qualifying with a professional 2-0 win over Ukraine in Group C at Wembley.

In a contest largely devoid of attacking inspiration, two first-half goals in quick succession from Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka put Ruslan Rotan's men to the sword.

Patience was the name of the game for England in the opening exchanges, as the visitors effectively quelled the Three Lions' passive attacks and offered adequate protection to Anatolii Trubin in between the sticks.

Trubin's only meaningful action of the first half-hour was keeping out a tame Kane header in the 20th minute, but Ukraine's chief threat on the counter-attack Mykhaylo Mudryk was marshalled expertly by Kyle Walker.

However, one moment of quality from the Three Lions' chief threats broke the Ukrainian resistance in the 37th minute, as Kane picked out Saka with a stunning cross-field ball, and the Arsenal starlet found space for the cross.

By that point, Kane had taken up his customary position at the back post, and the England skipper got the right side of Oleksandr Karavaev to shin home the opening goal from close range.

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Going from provider to goalscorer in the blink of an eye, Saka wanted his own slice of the action before the first half drew to a close, and the 21-year-old doubled England's lead in sublime style just three minutes after Kane's strike.

Receiving the ball in the right half-space, Saka produced a neat turn to evade the attention of Mykola Matvienko, and he proceeded to curl a peach of a 20-yard strike into the top corner.

The blue touch paper had been well and truly lit, and Kane was inches away from making it three for England in the 42nd minute, with his powerful low drive stopping under the body of Trubin.

Given Italy's second-half fightback in Naples, Gareth Southgate would have been well aware of the dangers of a 2-0 scoreline at half time, but Ukraine posed very little threat as the game slowed down considerably.

With nothing noteworthy happening on the field, the major talking point of the second half was a long-awaited Three Lions debut for Ivan Toney, who replaced Kane for the final 10 minutes.

Fellow substitutes Conor Gallagher and Jack Grealish, along with Harry Maguire, all saw a couple of chances to bag England's third go begging, but England saw out the final exchanges with ease to cement their first-placed standing in Group C.

Southgate's side return to action away to Malta in June, while Ukraine travel to North Macedonia in their second qualifying battle in three months' time.

Written by
Ben Knapton