England became the sixth team to complete a UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign with a 100% record, a much-changed side making it ten wins out of ten away to Lithuania.
Roy Hodgson’s Group E supremos dominated throughout, though two of their three goals – scored by Ross Barkley, unlucky home keeper Giedrius Arlauskis and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – owed a lot to fortune.
Receiving possession from Harry Kane, Barkley side-stepped his marker and unleashed a strike from outside the penalty box that took a sizeable deflection on its way in off Arlauskis’s right-hand upright.
Kane was the instigator as the visitors doubled their advantage ten minutes before half-time.
Exchanging passes with Adam Lallana, the forward advanced into the area and rattled the near post, the ball rebounding on to Arlauskis’s outstetched arm and in.
Kane had earlier gone close with three sighters, Watford’s Arlauskis thwarting him on each occasion. Arlauskis’s opposite number Jack Butland – earning his second cap, three years and two months after his first – was a spectator, though he needed to be alert to deny Lukas Spalvis before England made it 2-0.
The game long since over as a contest, Hodgson had replaced Kane three minutes earlier with debutant Danny Ings, who soon elicited another save out of the busy Arlauskis as England stretched their unbeaten run to 15 matches. Immediately after the match, in his press conference, Lithuania coach Igoris Pankratjevas resigned.
“Everything has its ending,” he said. “It is the end of qualifying and also the end of my job with the national team. I am resigning from the job. Thank you for supporting the team and goodbye.”
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Source: UEFA