GARETH SOUTHGATE highlighted Eberechi Eze and Conor Gallagher as two of England’s star performers in their 3-0 friendly win over Bosnia at St James’ Park.

England were victorious in the first of their two pre-Euros warm-up matches, with Cole Palmer opening the scoring from the penalty spot, Trent Alexander-Arnold volleying home a fine second and Harry Kane wrapping up the scoring with one minute left.

Southgate has to whittle his current 33-man squad down to a final group of 26 ahead of Friday’s midnight game, and tonight’s game was an opportunity for some of his fringe players to make their case.

Eze caught the eye with a series of effective dribbles into the Bosnian 18-yard box, while Gallagher performed effectively at the heart of the England midfield.

“Individual performances, there were numerous good ones,” said Southgate. “Clearly, I would imagine Eberechi has caught the eye with the way he started the game and the way he glides past people and the power he shows.

"I thought Conor Gallagher was an important performance for us with how important Declan (Rice) is for us. Conor's work with the ball has improved, we know what he can do without the ball. He showed real maturity.

"Then a first goal for Cole Palmer and I thought Adam Wharton also showed what he's been doing at the end of the season and in training. He sees pictures early and can play forward. It was lovely he looked as comfortable as he did.

"(It was) a team that didn't have a lot of caps on the field when we started, but I think it shows that people feel comfortable in an England shirt pretty quickly. That was lovely to see.”

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England laboured for long spells against a well-organised Bosnian defence, but eventually ran out comfortable winners thanks to their two goals in the final five minutes.

“I was pleased with the intensity of the game, firstly,” said Southgate. “It was an important game for all of the players in terms of the physical aspect.

"Also to play against a back five, that's something we could well face in the first couple of matches, so we needed to find solutions to that. They had a threat on the counter-attack, so we had to be vigilant in the way we played.

"At half-time we said we just had to be patient and try to get the ball into Cole in particular a little bit earlier but if you keep patient and you keep probing as you are with a bit more quality than you showed at times in the first half, the game will open up, as it did. I think in the end, the scoreline reflected the performance, it was fair.”