England hammered Bulgaria 6-0 in their Euro 2020 qualifying match at the Stadion Vasil Levski on Monday evening.Marcus Rashford opened the scoring after eight minutes with a vicious strike past Plamen Iliev, who was forced to pick the ball out of his net another three times before the interval.Ross Barkley had a hand in three of those four goals before halftime, assisting the first and scoring a brace himself.Raheem Sterling added two more before Harry Kane completed the rout with five minutes remaining to register England’s biggest scoreline since the World Cup.You’d be hard-pressed to name a man of the match in such a convincing team performance.

However, Barkley deserves special praise for making Roy Keane look more than a bit foolish off the back of some comments he directed at the Chelsea man before kick-off in Sofia.

Speaking as a pundit for ITV, the former Manchester United captain suggested the 23-year-old should be nowhere near Gareth Southgate’s starting XI.

Asked about Barkley being picked for the Three Lions, Lee Dixon said: “He’s had a decent start for Chelsea and then just gone off the boil a bit but, again, where is his best position? Roy, where would you play him?”

Keane’s brutal response?

"Probably on the bench - particularly in international football."

Well, Barkley’s double, complemented by an assist to boot, was a telling response indeed.

That said, time will tell if one impressive performance against a mediocre opponent will be enough to prove his worth to Keane and his other doubters.

England’s thumping of Bulgaria moves them a step closer to qualification for Euro 2020, which would’ve been secured if Kosovo failed to beat Montenegro in the other Group A fixture.

But the home side won 2-0 to force the 2018 World Cup semi-finalists to wait until at least mid-November to confirm their place at next year’s tournament.