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.
