The excellence of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe was the best thing about a farcically easy night in San Marino
![England’s young guns add verve and meaning to an absurd mismatch | Barney Ronay](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2a66fe3d09b52c56a32b38688a3969f16c69f530/0_291_3213_1928/master/3213.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=3ac2e2c3e871b23062bfb6edb8b33e5e)
In defence of weird, silly games of
Football. How to spin this? With Qatar 2022 qualification ON THE LINE in San Marino Harry Kane produced a sensational first‑half four‑goal blitz. Hmm. Perhaps not. With Qatar 2022 qualification not – OK, fine – realistically on the line
England sent out a stunning message with a clinical show of penalty-taking, goal-prodding and lunge‑hurdling. No. Maybe not that, either.
There is on the face of it no defence for this game of attack versus no-defence, this 10-0 mauling, this exercise in mild sporting absurdity. Watching England shuttle the ball around beneath the sallow green lights, on a pitch that brought frequent tobogganing slides, the modern slipper-boot unsuited to this kind of surface, it would be easy to make a rather earnest case for this kind of thing to be consigned to the dustbin for good, for that long-promised format rethink.