Gareth Southgate hailed Raheem Sterling’s new-found maturity and “devastating” finishing after the Manchester City forward helped England start their Euro 2020 qualification campaign in style.
After reaching the World Cup semi-finals and inaugural Nations League Finals last year, 2019 began with a 5-0 win over the Czech Republic in front of a sell-out Wembley crowd on Friday evening.
Sterling netted his first treble for England and earned the penalty that saw Harry Kane score the second goal.
“I saw what I’ve seen all week from him, so the level he hit didn’t surprise me,” manager Southgate said of Sterling.
“He’s in a really confident moment, not only on the field, but off the field he’s so mature and comfortable in himself.
“I think I talked about that earlier in the week, really, how I’ve seen that.
“So I’m delighted for him to get the reaction that he did from the crowd here. We can’t hide from the fact that he’s had difficult moments with England and he’s turned that full circle.
“I also think the goals in Spain were an important moment for him. You could see the release that had brought.
“And his finishes there and tonight were finishes that he was just taking on without thinking too much.
“At times, you could almost see the thought process in the past, but he’s hungry for those goals.
“I know he’s spoken about that before, of how he’s added that incentive to his game and I thought he was devastating tonight.”
