Gareth Southgate praised Bukayo Saka as an “elite” player after he scored the first hat-trick of his senior career despite a sore achilles. England defeated North Macedonia 7-0 to make it a maximum 12 points from the opening four games of their Euro 2024 qualification campaign.
Saka, at 21, became the youngest England men’s player to score three since Theo Walcott, who was 19 when doing so against Croatia in 2008. The Group C victory was the highest home win since England’s defeat of Montenegro by the same score in November 2019.
“I am delighted for him,” Southgate said of the Arsenal forward. “He’s had a slightly sore achilles – for a few weeks – and it’s another one where it would have been easy to pull out of the camp and miss out on a night like this that I’m sure will live with him forever. When you have one of the best nights of your life it’s a reminder to everyone to go through these things.”
Saka, who now has 11 England goals, said: “I don’t know what to say, I’m just so happy. Me and Rashy [Marcus Rashford], were really direct. At half-time Trent [Alexander‑Arnold] told me he was going to make that pass and he did.”
While the 40-yard ball from the Liverpool player, operating in midfield, created Saka’s second, Harry Kane registered twice with Rashford and Kalvin Phillips completing the scoring, the latter’s a first international goal.
Southgate was asked if Saka can become an elite player. “I think he is already there,” the England manager said. “He broke into a team [Arsenal] having a difficult time and performing at a high level, then when the team was playing well he’s still performing. That says everything. He’s exceptional to work with.
“For [all of] the players to have the mentality they have to work, at the late stage of this monster of all seasons, there was every excuse to do that and they’ve not done that.”
Southgate was particularly pleased with the attitudes of Kyle Walker, John Stones, Phillips, Jack Grealish, who joined the camp as members of Manchester City’s Champions League-winning squad.
“They didn’t come as big shots, they got into the group and mucked in and performed,” he said.
