Harry Kane's hat-trick took him past Sir Geoff Hurst in England’s all-time goalscorer list as Gareth Southgate’s side ran out easy 4-0 winners against Bulgaria at Wembley.
The 26-year-old opened the scoring after 24 minutes with a close-range finish before adding two penalties either side of Raheem Sterling’s 55th-minute strike to extend England’s 100 per cent record in Euro 2020 qualifying.
Kane took his international tally to 25 goals – one better than World Cup winner Hurst and the 14th-highest figure overall – as England remain top of Group A ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with second-placed Kosovo in Southampton.
Southgate opted to partner Michael Keane alongside Harry Maguire in defence while leaving uncapped trio Tyrone Mings, Mason Mount and James Maddison on the bench.
Instead, a midfield trio of Ross Barkley, Declan Rice and Jordan Henderson helped England establish early control against a Bulgaria side set up to defend in numbers.
England probed impressively for an opening – with Kane denied an early goal by a correct offside call - but required a goalkeeping error to take the lead. Plamen Iliev attempted to play a short pass towards Vasil Bozhikov but Sterling nipped in to intercept before having the presence of mind to cut the ball back to Kane, who was left with a simple finish.
Bulgaria weren’t without threat – Wanderson forced Jordan Pickford into an early save before Galin Ivanov wasted a good headed opportunity in the box – and started the second half strongly with Wanderson again testing Pickford.
But moments later, Marcus Rashford has his feet taken out from under him as he checked back in the box by Nikolay Bodurov and Kane converted from 12 yards emphatically, as he almost always does.
England went further ahead when the front three combined to positive effect, Rashford feeding Kane before his cross found Sterling who bundled the ball home from inside the six-yard box.
And Kane completed the rout after being felled by Kristian Dimitrov moments after coming on as a substitute, affording the England captain a chance to complete the second international hat-trick of his career.
Relive the action as it happened at Wembley!
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