England's 6-0 win in Bulgaria was marred by racist chanting from the home supporters on a deeply depressing night for European football in Sofia.
Gareth Southgate’s side responded to their first qualifying defeat in a decade in the Czech Republic and provided an equally emphatic reply to the sickening racists in the Vasil Levski National Stadium.
The win all but guaranteed qualification for Euro 2020, although Kosovo's win over Montenegro will delay the celebrations, but the football felt secondary as England’s worst pre-match fears were confirmed.
The build-up to the match was dominated by talk of potential discrimination from home supporters given the history of racism in Bulgaria, including on England’s last visit here in 2011.
Southgate and captain Harry Kane promised to abide by UEFA’s three-step protocol – essentially, warn fans; suspend play; abandon the match – and it took just 28 minutes for Croatian referee Ivan Bebek to instruct UEFA’s fourth official to enact the first step.
England were already leading 2-0 through goals from Marcus Rashford and Ross Barkley – two of Southgate’s changes following Friday’s defeat – when debutant Tyrone Mings reported abuse.
The message was relayed to Southgate, who informed UEFA’s fourth official of the situation. A tannoy announcement in both Bulgarian and English, greeted by loud boos from sections of the home support, warned supporters that the referee would abandon the match if the abuse continued.
"You racist *******, you know what you are," chanted England's away support, numbering over 3,000.
The visitors showed impressive strength of character to keep their composure, and Barkley bagged his second with a glancing header from Kane’s cross just four minutes after the announcement.
Shortly before half-time, fears the match would be suspended increased when there was a second lengthy stoppage, following abuse believed to have been directed at Rashford, who had opened the scoring with a thumping finish after six minutes.
Southgate, the referee, the fourth official and England’s players spent several minutes in conversation, with Kane appearing to ask his teammates what they wanted to do. Meanwhile, a group of Bulgarian supporters dressed in black, believed to be local ‘ultras’, streamed out of the stadium, apparently ejected by security.
There was no second announcement, however, nor a suspension of the match in line with step two of UEFA’s official protocol, and play resumed.
True to his remarkable character, Sterling responded to the situation in the best possible way, adding England’s fourth goal in first-half-stoppage time with a tap-in after more fine work from Kane, who finished with three assists and a hand in all but one of England’s six goals.
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