England 4 Lithuania 0
Presumably, Harry Kane knows international football is not always this easy. The crowd were kept waiting to see England's man-of-the-moment but it quickly became apparent Kane was a man in a hurry. He had been on the pitch only 78 seconds when his neck muscles were tensed, the ball thudded off his forehead and the crowd was rising to acclaim another extraordinary story in an increasingly bulging file.
Kane's career has been on such a steep, upwards trajectory this season that perhaps we should have expected it. All the same, it was some way to announce his arrival 72 minutes into a night when Wayne Rooney moved within two goals of Bobby Charlton's record of 49 England goals, and only one short of Gary Lineker's total, in second position, in the all-time list.
For a while, it seemed as if Rooney might obliterate all those records in one night's work. Instead, Kane quickly set about demonstrating why he has already scored 29 times for Tottenham Hotspur this season. Raheem Sterling and Daniel Welbeck were England's other scorers, continuing the team's immaculate start to Group E, and Roy Hodgson's players could feasibly have added more given the moderate standard of their opponents.
Lithuania looked what they were: the 94th-placed in Fifa’s world rankings, directly behind Malawi, Bolivia and Benin, and followed by Oman, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. These kind of opponents can be exceedingly obliging for a striker who wants to add a bit of extra sheen to his goals record and Rooney, without any exaggeration, could have eased himself alongside Charlton inside the opening 18 minutes bearing in mind the two chances that sandwiched his goal and came back off the woodwork.
The first one hit the post and flashed across the goalmouth after Fabian Delph’s pass had sent Rooney running clear. Then there was the looping header, from Welbeck’s cross, that came down on to the crossbar almost in slow motion.
Joe Hart did not have to get his gloves on the ball until midway through the first half and, once again, it quickly became apparent that Wembley was going to witness a lopsided contest. But then what did anyone really expect of a Lithuania side whose substitutes included a player who has recently been on loan from Leicester City to Nuneaton Town?
England's biggest opponent at times was their own complacency. Lithuania even threatened what could conceivably have been an embarrassing moment just after the half-hour mark when it needed Phil Jones to prevent one of their strikers, Deivydas Matulevicius, getting on the end of a cross from the left.
For the most part, however, it was predictably one-sided once Welbeck’s unconvincing shot had come back off the goalkeeper, Giedrius Arlauskis, and Rooney stooped to meet the rebound and nod in the opening goal.
An air of inevitability descended from that point and England's players did not need to exert themselves too much for their superiority to be obvious. Michael Carrick elegantly slotted into midfield. Delph was bright and quick to the ball whereas Welbeck looked keen to justify his starting position ahead of Kane and, though he can still look raw at times, he created enough problems to deserve that little bit of luck for England's second goal just before half-time. Jordan Henderson had sent over the cross. Welbeck's header was on target but it probably would have been a routine save for Arlauskis until it hit the nearest defender, Tadas Kijanskas, on his thigh, taking the ball on a new path just inside the right-hand post.
After that, Lithuania’s only real intention was to try to keep the score down. Rooney’s clever chip teed up Delph for a shot only for Arlauskis to turn away the midfielder’s left-footed volley with the outstanding save of the night.
England ought to have been awarded a penalty when Welbeck was clipped by Karolis Chvedukas but the sense of injustice did not manifest itself in prolonged protests and it was not long until the next goal. In the next attack, Rooney made his way to the right and whipped in a low ball across the six-yard area. Sterling had anticipated it before anyone else and darted in front of his markers to score from close range.
When Kane did come on, the game was ripe for more goals and England were playing keep-ball to the point that he and Ross Barkley, another substitute, were kept waiting by the side of the pitch for six minutes. But it was worth it. Kane had made only two touches of the ball by the time Sterling jinked his way to a crossing position and clipped the ball to the back post. Kane was there, in his favourite position, neck muscles braced. His header was true and Arlauskis could not smother it on the line. Then Kane was off, running to the corner flag to soak up the euphoria.
(Guardian service)
