Euro 2020: England Thrashes Ukraine 4-0, Denmark Advances
England thrashed Ukraine 4-0 at the Stadio Olympic in Rome as Harry Kane’s double helped them reach their first European Championship semi-final in 25 years, setting up a showdown with Denmark at Wembley.
Gareth Southgate started with Kane upfront with Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho supporting on the flanks, while Ukraine had both Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk in attack. Some of the fans in attendance had barely settled into their seats by the time England took the lead with a well-worked move.
Sterling dribbled down the left wing and slid a defence-splitting through ball for Kane to race through and guide into the net with a neat finish from close range after four minutes
Ukraine missed its first effort when England defender Kyle Walker gave the ball away and Roman Yaremchuk raced through to draw a save by Jordan Pickford. At the other end, England’s Declan Rice and Jadon Sancho had shots beaten away by goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan before halftime.
England came out firing in the second half as Harry Maguire scored a header less than a minute into the second half.
Moments later, Left-Back Luke Shaw found Kane, who then nodded in his side’s third goal as Ukraine’s resistance crumbled. The goal sent Kane level with Alan Shearer as England’s second-top scorer at major tournaments with nine, behind Gary Lineker on 10,
It was a statement performance from the striker, who came in for some criticism earlier in the tournament but scored in the 2-0 last-16 win over Germany, before producing a man of the match performance to go with his double in Rome.
England made it four from the resulting corner when Ukraine failed to deal with a set-piece delivery as Jordan Henderson headed in from six yards to score his first goal for his country on his 62nd cap.
The match ended 4-0 to England as Gareth Southgate’s side will face Denmark in London on Wednesday for a place in the final after the Danes defeated the Czech Republic 2-1 in Baku.
“There was a lot of pressure on us as we were favourites to win this game,” Man-of-the-match Harry Kane said after the match.
“To perform like we did tonight, a clean sheet, four goals, it was the perfect night.”
Euro 2020 results
Czech Republic 1-2 Denmark
Ukraine 0-4 England
Chidi Nwoke/Reuters.
