'This was the benchmark' - Tuchel praises 'statement victory'

Manager Thomas Tuchel said England's commanding performance against Serbia has set "the bar" as they took a step closer to qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

The Three Lions had faced criticism for lacklustre performances in this qualifying campaign, despite having won all five of their Group K matches.

But a 5-0 thrashing of Serbia in Belgrade on Tuesday is perhaps the eye-catching performance Tuchel's England needed.

"We had an excellent week from start to finish. We've just proved what I've seen every day in this camp and this makes me very happy," said German boss Tuchel.

"This camp was the benchmark."

England now need five points from their final three games to reach next summer's World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Sitting seven points clear at the top of the group, Tuchel's side will face Latvia in October before taking on Serbia then Albania in November.

"This week was excellent. The attitude, the way we played in both matches. Today is a statement victory against a difficult opponent in a difficult environment," Tuchel said.

England stifled Serbia and the hosts failed to get any of their three shots on target, leaving Jordan Pickford without a single save to make.

England had 24 shots and 12 on target while they had 42 touches in the opposition box as Serbia recorded just four.

Harry Kane and Noni Madueke gave England a deserved half-time lead before Ezri Konsa, Marc Guehi and Marcus Rashford wrapped up an impressive victory.

"There was no negative attitude on the pitch, no frustration on the pitch. For me, it was teamwork in it's purest form. Then we played football to a high level and got a deserved win," Tuchel said.

"We had a bit of a stop-start game against Andorra and the result was maybe not the result that everyone expected from us. I kept the belief but at some point you need to prove it also as a player, that it's not just only words from your coach.

"They kept on doing and I think they kept on believing, and they felt themselves that this is the spirit that we need in camp and that will give us the extra level of quality."

England have now won all five of their competitive games so far under Tuchel, although he did oversee a 3-1 loss at home to Senegal in a friendly.

Until Tuesday's win over Serbia, none of those performances had been particularly thrilling - with Saturday's win over Andorra an especially turgid affair.

England have not conceded a goal during this World Cup qualifying campaign but a perceived lack of ruthlessness in attack has left many supporters feeling underwhelmed.

Yet midfielder Declan Rice said scoring a lot of goals in every match is "never going to happen" with the way teams set up against them.

"The first four games people have been wanting to see six and seven goals. It is never going to happen when teams camp 10 men behind the ball," he said.

"We knew it was going to be really tough coming here, but [it was] a five-star performance. We took control from the very first minute and we needed that tonight."

Captain Kane said England "showed our level" in Belgrade as they dominated possession and finally demonstrated what they are capable of.

"Even in the other games, we did well, but we didn't reach top form," he added.

"We felt we had a good performance a few days ago. I know it wasn't the performance that everyone was excited about, but we did what we had to.

"I spoke about how we wanted to play - being on the front foot and being aggressive, and I think we showed our level today."