Record-chasing Harry Kane moved to within five goals of Wayne Rooney's England record and described scoring for his country as "one of the greatest feelings I can have".
Gareth Southgate's skipper helped himself to four first-half goals in a slaughter of San Marino that rubber-stamped England’s place at Qatar 2022.
"Every time I wear an England shirt I’m proud and whenever I can score goals it’s one of the greatest feelings I can have in my career and, hopefully, we can keep them coming," said Kane, who, with 48 goals, is now level on England’s all-time scoring list with Gary Lineker and one behind Sir Bobby Charlton.
And Southgate, who substituted Kane just after the hour mark, joked: “If we left him on another half an hour, we would have had Wayne Rooney's family on the phone.
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"Harry is a phenomenal goalscorer, we wanted to give him the chance tonight and he took it well. He has got huge personal ambition and showed again his clinical nature and the mentality he’s got.
"It’s not ‘if’ he is going to break the record, it is ‘when’. And then it’s about what he is going to do with it beyond that point.”
The rout was completed with goals from Harry Maguire, Emile Smith Rowe, Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham, Bukayo Saka and an own goal from Filippo Fabbri.
But Southgate was keen to pay tribute to his squad for the way they have played throughout the entire qualification process, saying: “The qualification was earned away in Budapest, Warsaw and Albania. I have to credit all our players and staff for a very good year.
“And tonight, we cannot do anything about the level of opposition but the mentality and the way they applied themselves was terrific.”
