Bellingham stars as England rout Croatia 7-0 in Rijeka amid controversy over children in stands
At 6pm in Rijeka, Croatia and England kicked off a closed-doors Nations League match that finished 7-0 to England, staged in front of roughly 6,000 children after a ban on adult fans.
The stadium sat against the Adriatic in Rijeka and the match was played behind closed doors following sanctions imposed after a mass fan march to the Stade de France in Paris that included Nazi salutes and the later discovery of a stash of weapons described as "iron rods, telescopic batons and sharp wooden sticks"; the Croatian Football Association nonetheless allowed children and designated "handlers" into the stands.
The decision to admit children while adults remained banned drew sharp criticism in the report, which called it a confusing message and urged UEFA to close the loophole that made the attendance possible; away support was heavily restricted, with just a hundred fans permitted to make the two-hour drive from Zagreb down a two-lane highway.
On the field England delivered a sustained, high-quality performance described as tight, mobile and technically advanced, with Thomas Tuchel fielding a midfield trident named as Alex Scott-Elliot Anderson-Bellingham; the team opened the scoring inside seven minutes when Scott's drive was followed by a slick Bellingham pass and Harry Kane finished with a roofed strike.
Jude Bellingham doubled the lead on 20 minutes after some nimble work from Anthony Gordon, the goal recorded as Bellingham's eighth in eight games for England after six in his previous 37; the visitors extended their advantage to 3-0 on 38 minutes when Gordon headed in from a whipped cross by Jarell Quansah.
Just before half-time Bellingham ran 80 metres to regain possession and crossed for Bukayo Saka to tap in for 4-0; Luka Modric featured after the interval but was substituted, described in the piece as a slightly sad spectacle, and England went further ahead shortly after half-time when Kane converted a cross from Anderson for his second.
Saka added another goal set up by Kane and the match concluded 7-0, a scoreline the report noted was not flattering to the opponents but highlighted England's style, balance and intensity as feeling repeatable and progress from the World Cup.
The report closed by stating that Croatian children behaved better at the match than many adults and that the country retains a problem with far-right, Nazi-adjacent elements and references to the Ustase; quoting Gianni Infantino, it added "football unites the world. Sometimes it even unites it in fascism." Although here the occasion was saved by another kind of punishment and by a genuinely gripping England performance.
