There was a period when it seemed that Bukayo Saka’s golden season would end with him a Premier League champion, perhaps even anointed as Footballer of the Year. And if neither quite came to pass, he still conjured a fitting finish to a wonderful campaign.
The first hat-trick of his career came in just 13 minutes and in his country’s colours. As England’s No. 7 made off with the match ball, they scored seven. North Macedonia have claimed the scalps of Italy and Germany in their recent past but they were demolished. If this could have been a group laced with pitfalls for England, with the reigning European champions, Euro 2020 quarter-finalists and a side who almost qualified for the World Cup, they have the maximum 12 points and are turning their journey to Germany next summer into a procession.
If Saka’s last European Championships ended with the trauma of a penalty miss in the final shootout, he has rendered it highly likely England will go to next summer’s. If he started this season outside Gareth Southgate’s strongest side, he ends it very much in it. A treble took his tally to six goals in his last nine caps; for country as well as club, Saka has proved more prolific than most envisaged.
And yet it is never just about the numbers with Saka. A wonderfully endearing footballer scored the goal of the night against North Macedonia – and England had six others to pick from – with a spectacular half-volley from 20 yards, sent crashing in after a similarly brilliant pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold, a 50-yard ball from Southgate’s new midfielder.
On an evening when Harry Kane extended his national record to 58 goals and Marcus Rashford, a lifelong Manchester United fan, struck for his country on his home ground, Saka nevertheless upstaged both. He became the youngest player to score a hat-trick for England since Theo Walcott against Croatia, and if an earlier Arsenal winger is an illustration that potential does not always lead to greatness, for now England can enjoy his promise.
His goals were very different, illustrating his range. First came a rising shot, rifled in with his less favoured right foot, following a low cross from Kyle Walker. Then, after his superb second, came the sort of strike Raheem Sterling used to get; Harry Kane dropped deep to act as playmaker, feeding a pass into the path of an onrushing winger. Saka made the dart behind the Macedonia defence and slotted in his shot.
It was England’s fifth goal of the night and a sign they had turned what could have been an awkward fixture into a rout. Southgate had cited the fact England had never beaten North Macedonia at home before; in a soporific start in the Old Trafford sunshine, perhaps the visitors imagined that sequence could continue. But each of Southgate’s front three found the net; perhaps they will be his first-choice forward line next summer, too.
Certainly, Rashford advanced his case. He had missed a fine chance a minute before he scored, with Harry Maguire the unlikely provider, but then slotted in from Jordan Henderson’s low cross. Meanwhile, it was eminently predictable that Kane struck. A brace took his tally to 40 goals in the season for club and country, and he bookended the scoring.
The first was a goal made in Manchester and scored by a man United’s left-back is trying to persuade to join him at Old Trafford. Rashford was England’s brightest player in the first half-hour and made the initial incursion, drawing in two defenders and feeding the underlapping Luke Shaw. His cutback was tucked in by Kane; it may be a goal Shaw envisages United scoring next season, though Kane is unlikely to ply his trade at Old Trafford then. His second stemmed from a foul on a Manchester City player, with John Stones wrestled to the ground by Egzon Bejtulia and Kane converting the penalty.
Before then, substitute Kalvin Phillips tapped in his first international goal after Jack Grealish’s cross was not cleared. For him, it has been a strange season, with a treble but a bit-part role at City and a threat to his place in the international pecking order from Alexander-Arnold.
For Kane, it felt like a typical occasion: he has scored in each of his last six games for England, even if one of those was more notable for the skied penalty against France in Qatar.
For Saka, though, it was another breakthrough night. England have a phalanx of gifted wingers but, in the last dozen years, only Kane and Sterling had scored hat-tricks for them. Such nights do not come around often but, given the speed of Saka’s rise, a first may not be a last for him.
