For the second England game in succession, James was included in the starting XI by Thomas Tuchel. Serbia were the Three Lions' opponents in what was deemed the biggest challenge remaining in their qualifying campaign.

Yet England made light work of the contest in Belgrade. Harry Kane broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute when he headed home a corner from Declan Rice, and former Blue Noni Madueke doubled the advantage soon after.

Ezri Konsa added a third shortly into the second half and, after James had been withdrawn and Nikola Milenkovic had been dismissed for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, Chelsea Academy graduate Marc Guehi added a fourth from a Rice free-kick and Marcus Rashford rolled home a penalty to complete the victory.

Meanwhile, Pedro Neto played 79 minutes as Portugal claimed a hard-fought 3-2 victory in Hungary.

Barnabas Varga had put the home side ahead before Bernardo Silva equalised nine minutes before the half-time interval. Portugal went ahead in the second period via a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, but after Pedro Neto had been withdrawn, Varga struck his second to level the game with six minutes to play.

However, Portugal fashioned an immediate response, and Joao Cancelo netted to secure three points for Roberto Martinez's side.

Elsewhere, Malo Gusto helped ten-man France claim a 2-1 win over Iceland in Paris.

The 2022 World Cup finalists fell behind in the 21st minute when Andri Gudjohnsen, son of former Chelsea striker Eidur, opened the scoring.

Kylian Mbappe levelled from the penalty spot on the stroke of half time, and Bradley Barcola put France ahead just after the hour mark.

Gusto was introduced moments later, but France's path to victory was made harder when Aurelien Tchouameni was shown a red card for a poor challenge on Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson.

However, Didier Deschamps' side were able to go on and secure victory to put themselves top of Group D.

In Under-21s European Championship qualifying, Marc Guiu was an unused substitute as Spain recorded a 3-1 win over Kosovo. Genesis Antwi was also an unused substitute as Sweden were beaten 2-0 in Montenegro.