UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifiers: 3 reasons why England beat Montenegro

Modified Nov 14, 2019 22:17 GMT

Tammy Abraham scored his first international goal as England thumped Montenegro 7-0

#3 Montenegro were diabolical

Montenegro put on a diabolical performance and 7-0 flattered them

There was a time, only a handful of years ago, when Montenegro were considered a tough test for a side like England. Euro 2012’s qualifiers, for instance, saw them draw with Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions twice, while the qualifiers for World Cup 2014 saw them again take a point from England before an Andros Townsend-inspired side beat them 4-1 at Wembley.

Unfortunately for Montenegro, those days now appear long gone. They were comfortably beaten 1-5 by England in Podgorica in March, but at least they put up a fight there and actually opened the scoring. Tonight, on the other hand, they were simply diabolical.

England admittedly performed brilliantly, but Montenegro put up so little resistance that it was embarrassing at times. Faruk Hadzibegic’s side enjoyed just 34% of the possession – during the first half, in particular, it felt like they couldn’t keep the ball at all – and had just 2 shots on target throughout the entire game, with only a bullet header from Marko Simic really testing Jordan Pickford.

Obviously any team can only beat the opponents in front of them, but based on Montenegro’s performance 7-0 was hardly a surprising final score. It’s also hardly a surprise that Montenegro have not won a game during their qualifying campaign.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram