Eberechi Eze admits that he was happy after achieving his first upper goal for England in their 3-0 win over Latvia at Wembley on Monday night.
Crystal Palace Winger made a big impact after reaching a substitute in the 61st minute. 15 minutes later, Eze cut in the Latvian box, avoided three defenders and saw his diversion on the net, giving England all three points in the World Cup qualifiers.
Speaking after his great moment, he said: “It’s something I was dreaming of from Young, so it’s special for it to happen, grateful to God for the opportunity to be here and to express the gift. I am forever grateful.
“I always want to influence the game every time I play, as long as I get, and today it has come out. I am happy to get a goal, to contribute, I tried to create space, I tried to destabilize the defender and to take my shot and work.
“I was told to come and make an impact and I tried to do – just to be immediately effective and try to create something.
“Sometimes it’s not easy against groups like this, because there is not much space, but the team worked well, we stuck to the plan and continued. I felt it was a strong performance from us. We knew what we had to do today and it was important to win.
Eberechi Eze is celebrating his first goal of England 🦁 pic.twitter.com/8p2w1qp9xb
– b/r football (@brfootball) March 24 2025
The Latvia race was only the second under the new director Thomas Tuchel, after a 2-0 win over Albania on Friday, where Eze was an unused substitute.
With a week of training under Tuchel, Winger shared his thoughts on his continued adaptation to the manager’s style of play compared to Gareth Southgate.
“We get it play per game,” Eze added. “You can see that it applies a different style of play that suits us definitely. He puts us in the right places and giving players the opportunity to be truly creative and effective.
“But, of course, it’s still the first days. We’re still learning, trying to understand more about what he wants and how he wants to go in the right direction.”
