Watch: Saka bounces back from Euro 2020 heartbreak to score 13-minute hat-trick in England rout of North Macedonia

England ran riot in their Euro qualifier against North Macedonia on Monday, as the Three Lions put 7 past a hapless Macedonian defence to all but ensure their participation at next summer’s tournament in Germany.

Marcus Rashford and Kalvin Phillips were on the scoresheet, as was Harry Kane with a brace, but the day belonged to Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, who grabbed headlines by smashing a 13-minute hattrick. The winger, coming off the best season of his young career, went a long way towards finding redemption for his brutal missed penalty at Wembley during the 2021 Euros, which decided the final against Italy.

Saka’s first in the 38th minute was a fine goal, as he took a touch after Kyle Walker fizzed a ball into the box, before a remarkable finish with his weaker right foot into the roof of the net from a tight angle to make it 2-0.

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Rashford made it 3-0 before half, and Saka came out after half-time with blistering pace. In his best goal of the day, he got on the end of a Trent Alexander-Arnold long ball, taking a couple of touches to set himself up, and blasting a powerful volley from outside the box past the Macedonian keeper.

Just minutes later, he would make it three for himself and 5 on the day for England, completing his hattrick after he was played through by captain Kane and left with a simple finish in a one-v-one against Stole Dimitrievski. A risk-free slot past the keeper, and Saka became the latest in a long line of hattrick scorers for England.

His manager Southgate was full of praise following Saka’s exceptional performance in Manchester, and rightly claimed that Saka had learnt and grown front he experience at the Euros. He had been subject to criticism and even racist abuse after that miss, but his teammates and fans at both club and country level banded behind him to support him through those moments — something which has reflected in the standard of his performance in the last season.

“I think when you then have probably one of the best nights of your life, it’s a reminder to everybody that it’s worth going through those things. To see the joy on his face, he’s such a popular member of the team and so humble, works incredibly hard and, of course, talented,” said Southgate in his post-game press conference. “He’s been finishing like that all week, so, yeah, it was outstanding performance.”

Those were Saka’s ninth, tenth, and eleventh goals in just 28 appearances for England, and he will certainly have nailed down his place on Southgate’s right wing for some time to come with such a performance.

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