Noni Madueke leaves Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jadon Sancho in awe as Chelsea star makes debut
As far as international debuts go, you will not get too much better than Noni Madueke's for England on Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old was called up to the Three Lions' senior squad for the first time for his country's fixtures against Ireland and Finland. Madueke was not used from the bench in Ireland at the weekend as England won 2-0 in their Nations League clash but he was called upon by Lee Carsley for their win against Finland at Wembley on Tuesday.
Madueke replaced Arsenal's Bukayo Saka midway through the second-half in London and made an immediate impact to help Harry Kane score his second goal of the game on his 100th cap for England. After being fed through down the right-hand side by Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold, Madueke cut the ball back to Kane, who expertly finished to wrap the game up for the Three Lions.
"Noni has carried on where he left off at Chelsea," Carsley said after the game. "He is very attacking, very sharp, different to what we have got. A different kind of wide player.
"When you consider that Bukayo had a run at the full-back for 60-odd minutes, Noni comes on and carries it on. So you wouldn't want to be a defender playing against them two."
Madueke was immensely proud of making his England debut - and even better, directly contributing to a goal minutes after coming onto the pitch. "It was great to make my first appearance for the national team and I am really proud of myself," the Chelsea winger said.
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"It has been a great week, the boys are great and the staff and players have made me feel welcome. Stonesy [John Stones] has been great with me and Dec [Rice], Jack [Grealish] - it is a great group of lads."
He added: "I tried to go out there and be direct and cause problems. I got an assist for Harry on his 100th appearance - it can't get much better than that.
"It is fitting that Harry got both goals. It is his night. It is fun to work with Harry because if you give him the ball in the box he is going to get you an assist. Now I cannot wait to get back to Chelsea and to keep performing."
Madueke's cameo left some of his teammates, and friends from elsewhere, impressed as well. The winger posted on his Instagram some pictures and videos of him in action, sparking plenty of comments from fellow professionals.
Among those were Alexander-Arnold and Jadon Sancho, with the latter posting a flame emoji. Also congratulating him were Saka, Ben Chilwell, Cody Gakpo, Carney Chukwuemeka, Lesley Ugochukwu, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jack Grealish and many more.