London: Harry Kane's first half hat-trick secured England's qualification for Euro 2020 in style with a 7-0 thrashing of Montenegro in their 1,000th match. While Cristiano Ronaldo scored his ninth international hat-trick as Portugal moved to the brink of qualifying with a 6-0 thrashing of Lithuania in Faro on Thursday. Even without Raheem Sterling, who was dropped by Gareth Southgate earlier in the week after a physical altercation with teammate Joe Gomez, England displayed the firepower that will make them one of the favourites for next year's European Championship.

'Clinical show'

"In the past we have maybe struggled against lower ranked teams who defend in numbers, but we have players who can open those teams up and a style of play that can do that," said Southgate. "We have qualified and done it clinically," he added. Kane moved into sixth in the all-time list of England goalscorers by taking his tally for the qualifying campaign to 11 in seven games. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Marcus Rashford were also on target before half-time and Aleksandar Sofranac's own goal and Tammy Abraham's first at international level rounded off the scoring as Southgate's men sealed top spot in Group A.