Jarrod Bowen impressed again as he won his eighth England cap as the Three Lions warmed up for the 2024 UEFA European Championship finals with a 3-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Making his fifth start for his country on Monday evening, West Ham United’s 20-goal winger was fielded in his preferred position on the right wing at St James’ Park in Newcastle upon Tyne, and was his usual lively self at a stadium where he scored a superb Premier League goal in March.
With the Balkan nation sitting deep in a 5-4-1 formation, space was at a premium. The 27-year-old used his quick feet to create a shooting chance in the first half, but his low effort was gathered by goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, who has just won promotion to Germany’s Bundesliga with St Pauli.
Bowen combined on a number of occasions with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, while his ability to carry the ball at pace took England up the pitch and turned defence into attack more than once.
Gareth Southgate stuck with his starting XI for the second half and the home side did improve as the game wore on, with Bowen seeing a long-range shot blocked, before Palmer and Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa both saw efforts thwarted by defenders.
Bowen then set up Palmer again, but the Chelsea man again saw his short charged down as the hosts upped the pressure on their opponents.
The West Ham man had a volley deflected wide just before the hour-mark, before England were awarded a penalty by Norwegian referee Rohit Saggi following a pitchside VAR review for a shirt pull on Konsa. Palmer duly stepped up and scored from the spot to give England the lead.
The hosts then took complete charge, with substitute Harry Kane of Bayern Munich testing Vasilj and Bowen’s header being blocked from the resulting corner.
Another substitute, Manchester City's Jack Grealish, then provided a fine lofted pass for Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold to volley accurately into the bottom corner with five minutes to play.
After more fine play from Grealish, Bowen saw his goal-bound shot kept out by teammate Konsa, denying him a first England goal, before Kane fired in the loose ball to complete the scoring.
England have one more warm-up match at home to Iceland at Wembley Stadium on Friday 5 June before Southgate names his final 26-man squad for Euro 2024, and Bowen will hope his recent performances for Club and country will be enough to be named in it.
The Euro 2020 runners-up will face Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia in the group stage in Germany, with England's first tie to be played on Sunday 16 June at 8pm BST.
