Sterling strikes to give England opening win over Croatia

June 13, 2021 England's Raheem Sterling in action with Croatia's Josip Brekalo Pool via REUTERS

Raheem Sterling scored his first goal at a major tournament to give England a 1-0 win over Croatia in their Euro 2020 Group D opener on Sunday.

England started brightly in front of around 20,000 fans in the sun-drenched Wembley Stadium, with forward Phil Foden rattling the far post and a long-range volley from midfielder Kalvin Phillips forcing Dominik Livakovic into a low save.

They made the breakthrough shortly after halftime, with Phillips showing excellent skill to evade a challenge and thread a pass through to Sterling who ran in behind the defence and smashed the ball in via a touch off Livakovic.

Croatia will look to bounce back in their next game against Czech Republic on Friday with England taking on neighbours and arch-rivals Scotland.