World Cup

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World Cup Qualifying - Europe | Group Stage

Sep 1, 2017 at 7.45pm UK

Malta
0-4
England

FT(HT: 0-0)

Kane (53', 92'), Bertrand (86'), Welbeck (91')

Gareth Southgate: 'England did a professional job'

By Darren Plant, Senior Reporter | 02 September 2017

England boss Gareth Southgate says that the Three Lions did a "professional" job as they registered a 4-0 win over Malta in their World Cup qualifier.

England boss Gareth Southgate has suggested that he was pleased with his side's performance as the Three Lions recorded a 4-0 win in Malta.

It took until the 53rd minute for the deadlock to be broken through Harry Kane, before three goals in the closing minutes gave the visitors a lopsided scoreline in their favour.

However, Southgate refused to be too critical by claiming that his players did a "professional" job as England took a step closer to qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

The 46-year-old is quoted by ESPN as saying: "We spoke before the game that if Germany were playing here, we'd probably look at the score and see 4-0 or something like that and think they've done a professional job.

"In the end, that's what we've done in the end. It has taken a while to get the goals, but that's a consequence of dominating the game, over 70% possession.

"Yeah, you'd like to open them up a bit more, but there isn't space to play against them, they're 5-4-1, there's very little space to play. When we got the ball into the areas that we'd worked on during the week, we managed to do that."

England are next in action when they host Slovakia on Monday evening.