Euro 2020: England win Group D as Croatia, Czech Republic advance

ENGLAND returned to winning ways on Tuesday night by beating Czech Republic 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in London.

Raheem Sterling scored the game’s only goal.

With the win, England ended the first round as Group D winners and advanced to the round of 16.

Backed by the Wembley crowd, England started brightly and Sterling could have scored inside the first 10 minutes when he received a clever ball from Luke Shaw and lobbed the Czech Republic goalkeeper only to hit the crossbar.

The goal did come when two of the players making their first starts combined to set up Sterling.

Bukayo Saka picked up the ball from deep and skipped past two Czechs on the run before finding Harry Kane who fed the ball to Jack Grealish.

The Aston Villa forward clipped a left-footed cross over the Czech Republic defence and found Sterling who scored his second goal of the tournament with a close range header in the 12th minute.

Despite the defeat, Czech Republic qualified for the round of 16 as one of the best third-placed teams with four points, just behind Croatia on goals scored.

Croatia, World Cup finalists in 2018,have reached the round of 16 after coming second in Group D.

The Croats defeated Scotland 3-1 also on Tuesday night at Hampden Park in Glasgow in the Scottish capital.

Nicolas Vlasic scored the game’s first goal in the 17th minute but Scotland equalised three minutes before half-time through Callum McGregor.

It was Scotland’s first goal at a major tournament since the World Cup in France in 1998.

Croatia restored their lead in the 62nd minute with Luka Modric’s goal, and Ivan Perisic made sure of the win in the 77th minute.

England will face the second-placed team in Group F, which could be any of France, Germany or Portugal, while Croatia will battle the second-placed team in Group E.