England avenged Italy, two years after losing to them in the Euro 2020 final, beating them 2-1 at home on Thursday in the first round of Group C of the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
At the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples, the Three Lions opened the scoring in the 13th minute through West Ham's Declan Rice, who followed up a shot from Harry Kane that was blocked by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Before half-time, the referee awarded a penalty to the English after resorting to video technology (VAR) following a hand touch on Napoli's Giovanni Di Lorenzo, which Kean translated into a goal in the 44th minute.
With this goal, Kane became England's all-time top scorer with 54 international goals.
ENGLAND'S ALL-TIME RECORD GOALSCORER!
Congratulations, @HKane! 👏 pic.twitter.com/vXoeRcQrRC
— England (@England) March 23, 2023
Kane equalled Wayne Rooney's record (53 goals) by equaling his country's draw against France (1-1) in the quarter-finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup football team from the penalty spot.
Kane then missed the chance to break the record by missing a second penalty in the same match in which his country were eliminated from the competition.
Tottenham striker Kane, 29, reached this figure in his 81st appearance, having opened his international tally in his debut for England by beating Lithuania 4-0 in Euro 2016 qualifying, 79 seconds after being brought on in place of Rooney himself.
In the second half, Matteo Rettigi scored the goal to reduce the deficit for Italy in the 56th minute, his first international goal on his debut for Italy.
Manchester United's Luke Shaw was sent off after receiving two yellow cards within two minutes (78 and 80), but the final result remained in favour of the English.
In the same qualifiers, veteran Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated in the best possible way his own world record for international matches (197), scoring twice during his country's broad victory over Liechtenstein in Group J.
📈 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 📈 𝗩𝗜𝗕𝗘𝗦 📈
Nada como entrar a vencer no Apuramento para o Europeu! 💪 #VesteABandeira #WearTheFlag pic.twitter.com/vtxHoqsaWk
— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) March 23, 2023
Ronaldo equalled the previous record of Kuwaiti striker Bader Al-Mutawa in his team's match against Morocco in the quarter-finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup after coming on as a substitute in the 51st minute in place of Ruben Neves.
Ronaldo scored his goals in the 51st minute from the penalty spot and 63rd from a direct free kick, after Joao Cancelo opened the scoring in the 8th minute, and Bernardo Silva added the second at the beginning of the second half, specifically in the 47th minute.
By scoring twice, Ronaldo extended his lead to the world's top scorer with 120 goals.