Harvey Elliott of Liverpool lit up Goodison Park as the England Under-21 team defeated Northern Ireland with ease.
The Young Lions won 3-0 on Tuesday thanks to the midfielder’s elegant brace.
While Tyler Morton, a Reds teammate on loan at Hull, opened the scoring with his maiden goal for the Under-21s, he now has five goals in the Euro 2025 qualifying campaign.
They are now three points behind Ukraine, who defeated Azerbaijan 1-0, in second place in Group F.
When the two compete in October’s penultimate game, which increasingly appears like a straight shootout for the group win, the Young Lions find themselves in the unusual situation of having to catch up.
They can definitely pursue this, and even though manager Lee Carsley may argue otherwise, his team’s final game before March was a shambles after they controlled from the start, making the quality gap evident.
Jarrad Branthwaite, the captain of Everton on home soil, was the first to lose a good opportunity when he failed to connect with a knock-back from Tino Livramento. England was having difficulty getting past the formidable Northern Ireland defense, which was commanded by Michael Forbes and Ruairi McConville.
After twenty minutes, Jay Stansfield misplayed a half-volley from Hayden Hackney’s cross, and Noni Madueke curled wide, but these were only half-chances rather than the Young Lions tearing through their opponents.
James Trafford was a spectator in goal as they continued to dominate and press, and Elliott missed a shot, but the lethal touch eluded the hosts until, after 31 minutes, Northern Ireland eventually buckled under the onslaught.
The fact that Madueke’s center eluded Stansfield and was only cleared to Morton on the edge of the box didn’t really matter because the midfielder drilled low into the corner.
After it, there was seldom any doubt that England would win. Without Cole Palmer and Rico Lewis, elevated to the senior squad last week, they were perhaps missing a zip centrally but Madueke and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens offered enough on the flanks.
Indeed, Chelsea’s Madueke teed up Hackney to shoot over before Elliott doubled the lead after 50 minutes.
Terry Devlin gave the Liverpool player a hard knock from 25 yards out, and he then avenged the loss with a free kick that bent into the bottom corner.
With ten minutes remaining, Elliott grabbed a third goal after Josh Clarke had denied Madueke. After creating a wide opening in the Northern Ireland midfield with a run on Morton’s pass, the 20-year-old chipped in a beautiful shot to beat the charging Clarke.
Elliott still had time to attempt a hat-trick, but a superb Clarke save prevented him from doing so.
