Marcus Rashford has just scored what could be England's best goal so far at World Cup 2022.
The striker is in red-hot form, having netted three goals in three games in Group B thus far and proving manager Gareth Southgate was right for picking him ahead of Raheem Sterling for the clash against Wales.
The second goal that Rashford scored was a peach, too, nutmegging goalkeeper Danny Ward after a lovely team move.
After a dreadful first half in which very little of significance happened – well, aside from a strange, dashing run from Harry Maguire – Rashford opened the scoring just minutes after half-time. The Manchester United forward rifled a free-kick across goalkeeper Ward – in for the suspended Wayne Hennessey following his red card against Iran – repaying his manager’s faith for including him.
Things went from bad to worse moments later for Wales, who lost the talismanic Gareth Bale at half-time through injury. Another player who had earned a start after clamour from fans and pundits, Phil Foden managed to squeeze through the Welsh backline and meet a cross from Harry Kane, to make it 2-0. Wales were left needing to chase the game in order to even hold any hope of advancing to the next round, while England made sweeping changes to a winning team.
Southgate brought on the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kalvin Phillips, Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier – the former two for their first minutes of the tournament. England now look set for a next round encounter against Senegal, the runners-up of Group A.
