Gareth Southgate told Marcus Rashford and his England teammates to take more shots at goal in the second half of their 3-0 World Cup win over Wales on Tuesday.
All three goals came after his half-time message, with Rashford netting a sumptuous free-kick before slamming home past goalkeeper Danny Ward on 68 minutes either side of fellow Mancunian Phil Foden’s first finals goal.
Manchester United striker Rashford had a first-half chance to fire past Ward when put through on goal but his dink couldn’t beat the Leicester shot-stopper’s outstretched arm. The attacker was told by his boss at the break to be less shy in firing in efforts during the second period.
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Speaking after the match, Rashford explained to the BBC: “We were a little bit disappointed as a team against the USA. I thought we could have played a bit better and the only way to bounce back from that was to have a good performance in your next game.
"I thought we did that. The first half, we defended brilliantly, we didn’t give them anything. They had one shot. At half-time the manager said we’d played really well but the one thing we can work better on is shots on goal.
"We only had two or three in the first half. We wanted to have more, we wanted to work the keeper and keep getting in dangerous positions.”
His brace means the 25-year-old is now joint top scorer in the World Cup with three goals, alongside United-linked Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands and Kylian Mbappe of France, who has played just two matches so far.
Rashford explained his thought process behind his free-kick, detailing: “I fancied one in the first half but the one in the second half was in a better position. From there, it’s just about being calm and trying to execute what you practice in training.
“Moments like this, this is what you play football for, the biggest moments, the best moments. I am really happy today. I am really happy that we are going through to the next round of the tournament and hopefully we can build on this performance.
“I have massive ambition with this team and I think we can play even better than what we have shown tonight.”
England take on Senegal in the last 16 at 7pm on Sunday while Wales bow out having finished bottom of Group B.
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