England 3 – 0 Ivory Coast

Stand-in captain Raheem Sterling, scored one and set up another, while visiting skipper Serge Aurier was sent off in the first half as England cruised to a 3-0 friendly win over Ivory Coast at Wembley.

Former Tottenham defender Aurier had been done all ends up by Sterling in the build-up to England’s opener on the half-hour, which was gleefully tucked home from three yards by Ollie Watkins for his second goal for his country.

Aurier’s night then went from bad to worse when the right-back picked up two bookings in quick succession. The first was for chopping down Jack Grealish, the second came six minutes later for dissent after he was held up by Watkins – a reminder of Aurier’s costly hot-headed moments in a Spurs shirt.

England capitalised on their numerical advantage within five minutes. Sterling scythed through the Ivory Coast midfield with the help of a Watkins lay-off and when his shot was parried away by goalkeeper Badra Ali Sangare, the impressive Grealish coolly teed him up to turn in at the second attempt.

At that point it looked like a flood of goals might follow but England lacked some zip in the second half and had to wait until the final touch of the game to add a third, with Tyrone Mings heading in for a three-goal margin to maintain their winning start to a year which will be defined by the World Cup next winter. Tougher and more intense tests are to come.

While it was a memorable night for Sterling captaining his country in his hometown, there were boos for another senior England figure Harry Maguire before kick-off. The out-of-form Manchester United skipper – who did have his name sung during the match – had a relatively straightforward night on the field, with Ivory Coast toothless without the injured Wilfried Zaha and almost unable to get out of their own half in the second period.

Given the 10 changes made from Saturday’s win over Switzerland, England had begun well in the opening 30 minutes against 11 and could easily have taken the lead earlier, with Declan Rice’s shot headed away by Eric Bailly, Grealish firing through the legs of Aurier at the ‘keeper, and Sterling’s smart touch and shot denied by Deli’s block.

Eighteen-year-old Jude Bellingham was another positive across the game, with a slick one-two with Sterling leading to the midfielder’s shot being saved onto the post early on before he curled wide later in the first half.

He was at the centre of controversy at the beginning of the second period, when referee Erik Lambrechts further incensed the Ivory Coast players by awarding a penalty when Bellingham went down under Fousseny Coulibaly’s challenge. But that decision was rightly overturned following a check of the pitchshide monitor – the half-time sub had got the ball first.

Bellingham’s classy play continued, though, and he could be banging on the door for a starting spot come the World Cup.

A quadruple change, which saw England send on Kane, Phil Foden, Emile Smith Rowe and Luke Shaw on the hour mark, was the last thing the visitors needed but the chances dried up for the hosts, with James Ward-Prowse’s drive over the bar the closest England came through the second half until Mings’ late intervention. The Aston Villa man headed powerfully into the ground from Foden’s corner to add some gloss.

Deli could have pulled one back for Ivory Coast before then, volleying over from Jean Michael Seri’s excellent free-kick, but there rarely appeared a threat to England’s now 22-game unbeaten run.

They’ll be back in action in June when the level ramps up a notch in the Nations League. Until then Southgate can reflect on a positive start to a pivotal year.

England’s winning runs – Opta stats

• England remain unbeaten against African nations, losing none of their 20 matches against them (W14 D6) and beating seven of the nine opponents they have faced, failing only against Ghana (D1) and Algeria (D1).
• England have won their last 10 international friendly matches by an aggregate score of 21-2. It’s their longest winning run in friendly games since an 11-game winning run between 1924 and 1929.
• Raheem Sterling has scored in 15 matches for England and ended on the winning side in every match, the best such record for the England national team in history. Only Steven Gerrard (18) and David Beckham (17) have ever scored in more games without ending on the losing side than Sterling.
• England have won all 12 matches which have featured Jude Bellingham – in England’s entire history, only Theo Walcott has had a longer winning start to his England career (won first 14 caps).
• Phil Foden made his 15th England appearance in this match, coming on as a substitute, and has never ended on the losing side in any of his 15 games (W13 D2), the outright most appearances played without losing in the history of the Three Lions, overtaking David Rocastle’s record of 14 games between 1988 and 1992.

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