England put seven past Croatia in Rijeka

Croatia don't lose at home like this. A seven-goal margin against a team with Luka Modrić's pedigree and a squad that reached a World Cup final as recently as 2018 is not a normal Tuesday night in Rijeka, it's the sort of result that gets filed under rare and stays there.

According to Sky Sports, England were utterly dominant from start to finish, the kind of complete performance that tends to get talked about long after the final whistle rather than forgotten by the weekend. Seven goals away from home in a competitive fixture against a nation ranked among Europe's better sides doesn't happen by accident, and it doesn't happen without a team playing with real conviction in every third of the pitch.

A statement result for England

Whatever questions have followed this England squad through recent cycles, a 7-0 win in a Nations League away fixture answers a few of them in one evening. Results like this tend to shift the mood as much as the table, and tonight the talk is about what England just did to a side that isn't supposed to be taken apart this easily.

The group table will have moved sharply too. A win this heavy banks three points and reshapes goal difference in a section that could end up tight, sending a message to whoever else is chasing top spot that England arrived in Croatia and left no room for argument.

A brutal night for Croatia

For Croatia, this is the kind of scoreline that invites hard questions regardless of who was on the pitch. Modrić's generation built its reputation on resilience as much as talent, grinding through tournaments on nerve and composure, so conceding seven at home is about as far from that identity as a result can get.

Exact details of the goals, the lineups and the minute-by-minute breakdown weren't laid out in the initial report, but the final score alone tells its own story. Nations League group games don't usually produce afternoons this one-sided, which is exactly why this one will be remembered well beyond the usual international break news cycle.