Marcus Rashford reveals what Gareth Southgate said to inspire England’s rampant second-half showing against Wales

Gareth Southgate told England to have more shots against Wales in his half-time team talk before they went on to a 3-0 win, Marcus Rashford said. 

​England failed to score in first halfRashford double and Foden goal sealed 3-0 winThree Lions go through to knockout rounds

WHAT HAPPENED? After a goalless first half, the Three Lions went on to net three times in the second half against Wales. Rashford opened the scoring with a free kick five minutes after the restart and Phil Foden went on to double their lead two minutes later. In the 68th minute, Rashford struck again to round off the scoring for his team.

WHAT THEY SAID: Rashford told the BBC after the match: “Half time the manager said: ‘We’ve played well but but we need more shots on goal – I think we only had two or three’. We wanted to work the keeper more and get into dangerous positions, which I thought we were doing in the first half and in the second half we made them count.”

He continued: “Moments like this, this is what I play football for. The biggest moments, the best moments. I m happy we are going through to the next round of the tournament because I have massive ambitions for this team and I think we can play even better than we did today.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: The victory saw England finish top of Group A, two points ahead of United States, and puts them through to the last 16 of the competition.

IN THREE PHOTOS:

DID YOU KNOW? Rashford is the first Manchester United player to score three goals at a major tournament for England since Bobby Charlton did so at the 1966 World Cup.

WHAT NEXT FOR ENGLAND? Southgate’s men will take on Senegal in the first knockout round of the tournament on December 4.