Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden made the most of their promotion to England’s starting lineup, excelling in a 3-0 World Cup victory over Wales.
Manchester United’s Rashford scored a fantastic free-kick in the 50th minute, earned by Foden after a jinking run, and his Manchester City opponent scored a minute later.
Rashford scored his third goal of the tournament between the legs of Wales goalkeeper Danny Ward to secure first place in Group B and a last-eight meeting with Senegal.
Wales’ first World Cup finals appearance since 1958 concluded with a single point with captain Gareth Bale leaving before halfway due to injury.
Rashford and Foden were selected amid four changes made by Gareth Southgate and each were to the fore as Wales dug in doggedly during the first period.
The best opening of the opening 45 minutes fell to Rashford in the early stages when England captain Harry Kane dropped deep to thread a fine throughball into his path. Ward, who was playing in place of the suspended Wayne Hennessey, stood firm.
Southgate started Foden and Rashford on the right and left flanks respectively but switched them for the start of the second half and it paid immediate dividends.
Foden darted infield to send Wales defenders scrambling and he was brought down by a combination of Joe Roden and Connor Roberts. Rashford arrowed a fabulous strike over the wall and Ward wrong-footed himself by stepping to his right.
Kane, the Golden Boot winner in 2018, is yet to get on the scoresheet at this tournament but he collected his third assist of this tournamen after Rashford harried Ben Davies into an error and fed his captain to cross for the onrushing Foden at the far post.
With an eye on Sunday’s match against Senegal, Southgate was allowed to ring the changes, and one of the replacements, Kalvin Phillips, unleashed Rashford down the right. He still had a lot to accomplish, so he ignored Roberts’ attentions before nutmegging Ward.
