Raheem Sterling was England’s hero in their opening Euro 2020 group stage match against Croatia on Sunday afternoon.The Manchester City winger, who was awarded an MBE earlier this week for services to Racial Equality in Sport, netted the only goal of the game early in the second half.Kalvin Phillips’ inch-perfect pass found Sterling, who converted from close range past Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.That was Sterling’s first ever goal for England at a major international tournament and what a time to score it.There were some England fans who would have preferred to have seen Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford or Jadon Sancho start ahead of Sterling, who failed to produce his best form for City during the final months of the season.But Gareth Southgate remained faithful to the 26-year-old, who took his opportunity when it fell to him.p1f82vm2t3g6fbta1qb095b5pab.jpg

Sterling's awkward post-match interview

Sterling was interviewed by BBC Sport after the match but didn’t look overly pleased when he was asked if he’d justified his selection by scoring England’s winning goal.

After pausing for a few seconds while looking bemused, Sterling responded by scoring: “I’m trying. I’m trying.”

Watch the clip here…

Slightly awkward.

Sterling knew he would score

Also in the interview, Sterling said: “I’ve always said that if I play at Wembley in a major tournament, I’m scoring. It’s my back garden, I have to score. It’s great to finally do that.”

On his lack of recent goals for City, Sterling added: “There’s a lot of different reasons why I haven’t scored for my club and that’s irrelevant now. I’m here with England, I’m enjoying my football and I’m just happy to score.”

Sterling will now fancy of chances of making Southgate’s starting line-up against Scotland next Friday night.