IT is not very often that the road to Wembley begins at Wembley, but England’s circuitous route to the Euro 2020 final is successfully up and running.

The semi-finals and final of next summer’s European Championships will be staged at England’s national stadium, and while Gareth Southgate’s side still have seven more qualifying games to play, last night’s comfortable victory over the second-ranked team in their group means they have already taken a major stride towards the finals. Win in Montenegro on Monday, and they will effectively be halfway there.

After the dramas of England’s final outing of 2018, when Harry Kane’s dramatic late winner against Croatia secured a place in this summer’s Nations League finals, this was a return to more traditional international fare.

England were barely tested against a Czech side ranked number 44 in the world – four places below Scotland – with first-half goals from Raheem Sterling, who eventually finished with a hat-trick, and Kane, who hammered home his 21st international goal from the penalty spot, effectively settling things before the break.

Southgate will have been satisfied with Jadon Sancho’s impact on his first competitive start – the youngster set up Sterling’s opener and repeatedly caught the eye with his trickery and exuberance – and will have been relieved at the warm reception that was afforded to Declan Rice when he came off the bench to make his controversial England debut midway through the second half.

The England boss will also have been delighted to see Sterling claim his first international treble, with the Manchester City forward following up his first-half effort with a wonderful curled strike shortly after the hour mark and a third goal that took a hefty deflection off one-time Sunderland loanee Ondrej Celustka. Increasingly, Sterling is replacing Kane as England’s go-to player.

England’s romp was complete when former Middlesbrough loanee Tomas Kalas stabbed the ball into his own net with six minutes left, but in truth, Southgate did not really learn anything he did not already know. That tends to be the way of things in qualifiers, and for all that a five-goal win is not to be sniffed at, last night’s cakewalk was a pretty good advert for the Nations League, which proved so captivating in the autumn.

Unlike in their matches against Spain and Croatia, which ebbed and flowed appealingly, England found themselves strolling to a facile win against limited opposition. Sadly, they had better get used to that challenge for the remainder of their Group A matches.

At least that should mean Southgate is able to blood more young talent, with Callum Hudson-Odoi finishing last night’s game playing alongside his fellow 18-year-old, Sancho, in attack as he came off the bench to made his international debut.

It is only eight months since England were appearing in the World Cup semi-final, but the international footballing environment moves fast, and a new generation of players is already emerging to challenge some of those who did so well in Russia.

Sancho is at the vanguard of the new guard, and having made three appearances in the autumn, the 18-year-old was handed his first competitive start in place of the injured Marcus Rashford, himself just 21. From the outset, it was obvious he was determined to seize his chance.

It took 24 minutes for England to make a breakthrough, but Sancho served notice of his threat from the very first passage of play as he embarked on what was to prove the first of a series of jinking runs down the right. He might be inexperienced at this level, but with the best part of a Bundesliga season with Borussia Dortmund under his belt, the teenager is not someone who is going to be overawed at the thought of playing for his country.

Sancho played a key role in England’s opener, which came courtesy of the night’s first incisive passing move in either final third.

Kane might be best known for his goalscoring exploits, but he is an effective passer when he drops deep – think back to the goals he set up in October’s thrilling away win over Spain – and having turned neatly midway inside the Czech half, the England skipper sent Sancho scampering down the right with a slide-rule pass inside the opposition full-back.

Having stolen a yard on Pavel Kaderabek, Sancho delivered an early low cross into the area, enabling Sterling to slide home from the edge of the six-yard box.

It was the type of goal Sterling has been scoring all season with Manchester City, but not one that was particularly prevalent from the winger at international level prior to his two-goal salvo in Seville. That felt like a pivotal night in the winger’s England career, and having gone three years without an international goal, he has now scored five in three matches.

He can also turn provider too, and his run on the stroke of half-time earned the penalty that effectively sealed England’s win.

His explosive bursts of pace troubled the Czech defence all night, and when he broke clear after receiving Dele Alli’s pass, he was blocked off by a combination of Kaderabek and Kalas.

Referee Artur Dias hesitated momentarily before pointing to the spot, and while Czech goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka got a hand to Kane’s spot-kick, he was unable to keep the ball out.

That was really that in terms of a sense of competition, although things might have been different had Tomas Soucek’s glanced header from Vladimir Darida’s free-kick not gone narrowly wide of the post at the start of the second half.

Jordan Pickford looked beaten as the ball whistled past his upright, but the Wearsider was much more comfortable a minute later as David Pavelka drilled a shot straight at his chest.

It would be over-egging it to suggest England were rocking as the Czechs delivered a succession of crosses into the box, but with Michael Keane and Harry Maguire forming a previously untried combination at centre-half, there was a nagging sense that a better opponent might have caused England more serious problems. Given the strength of the rest of the opposition in Group A, however, those problems will probably only be encountered in this summer’s two Nations League games rather than in a qualifier.

The rest of last night’s game belonged to Sterling, with his second goal proving the best of the night. There was an element of fortune to the way in which the ball fell into his path via a series of deflections, but he displayed superb composure to calmly turn his man in the 18-yard box before curling an excellent finish into the corner.

Six minutes later and he was celebrating his hat-trick. Ross Barkley played the ball into his path on the corner of the area, and his shot struck Celustka before looping beyond a helpless Pavlenka.

The Czech defence were all over the place by that stage, and Kalas’ night went from bad to worse with six minutes left. Pavlenka kept out Hudson-Odoi’s low shot, but Kalas somehow contrived to stab the rebound into his own net.