England’s young guns add verve and meaning to an absurd mismatch | Barney Ronay

The excellence of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe was the best thing about a farcically easy night in San Marino

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.