England v Costa Rica: Marcus Rashford played with swagger – Gareth Southgate

A sublime goal, the man-of-the-match award, a confident “swagger” and the widespread backing of television and radio pundits.

So has Marcus Rashford, star of England’s 2-0 friendly win over Costa Ricaat Elland Road, done enough to convince manager Gareth Southgate he should be in the starting XI for the World Cup opener against Tunisia on 18 June?

Southgate refused to be drawn on whether he had decided on his starting line-up for the game in Volgograd.

However, Rashford’s impressive performance in Leeds convinced a host of former England players and managers that the 20-year-old Manchester United forward should be picked ahead of Raheem Sterling.

Former Three Lions striker Ian Wright said Rashford should get the nod over the Manchester City forward, who struggled to impress in the friendly win over Nigeria at the weekend and was booked for diving.

“I’d go with Rashford because that’s exactly what we need from a second striker,” Wright told ITV. “I love him there.”

What did Southgate say about Rashford?

Rashford has scored three goals in 19 appearances for his country, while Sterling, 23, has two in 38 caps and has gone 20 England games without a goal, last finding the net in October 2015 against Estonia.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Southgate said: “Marcus is desperate to do well and we said to him and all the players we were expecting mistakes to be made.

“If they’re not, we’re not trying hard enough to take risks and be creative. If you’re doing those things then occasionally you get the moments we got tonight. He is a wonderful striker of the ball from distance.

“We have got great competition for places throughout the team – you saw that tonight. We’ve a decision to make for the first game, but we’ll need people to come into matches to accelerate them, and sometimes to defend.

“We’ll need that competition and we’ve had three weeks of excellent preparation. We have a platform to build into the tournament.”

Speaking to ITV, Southgate added: “What pleased me most is that Marcus enjoyed his football tonight. He played with a real swagger. He had a difficult end to the season, having to play on his own as a No 9 at times. He is still filling out – we sometimes forget how old he is.”