England vs Lithuania as it happened: Jermain Defoe and Jamie Vardy earn routine England win

Re-live the World Cup qualifier at Wembley

England striker Jermain Defoe made a scoring return to the international stage and substitute Jamie Vardy added a second goal as the hosts laboured to a 2-0 victory over Lithuania in World Cup qualifying Group F on Sunday.

Veteran Defoe, making his first appearance for nearly 3-1/2 years, fired lacklustre England ahead in the 21st minute at Wembley but Gareth Southgate's team struggled to finish off a Lithuania side who are 93 places lower in the FIFA rankings.

England survived a couple of worrying moments and had to wait until the 66th minute to double their lead when Defoe's replacement Vardy finished neatly shortly after coming on.​

Relive England's routine victory below...

Which players impressed at Wembley?​

England's next four fixtures...

vs Scotland (A). June 10. World Cup qualifier.
vs France (A). June 13. Friendly.
vs Malta (A). September 1. World Cup qualifier.
vs Slovakia (H). September 4. World Cup qualifier.

[26 March 2017 15:00 · Mark Critchley]

What time is kick-off?

The match will kick off at 5.00pm.

[26 March 2017 16:00 · Jack Austin]

Hello and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of England vs Lithuania from Wembley.

Follow all the build-up, action and reaction as Gareth Southgate's Three Lions look to take another step closer to World Cup qualification. 

The game kicks off at 5pm but you call keep up to date with all the build-up right here.

[26 March 2017 16:01 · Mark Critchley]

Team news

England: Hart, Walker, Keane, Stones, Bertrand, Dier, Alli, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling, Defoe.

Subs: Forster, Heaton, Clyne, Shaw, Gibson, Livermore, Ward-Prowse, Barkley, Vardy, Rashford, Lingard, Redmond. 

Lithuania: Setkus, Klimavicius, Slavickas, Kijanskas, Vaitkunas, Zulpa, Novikovas, Slivka, Kuklys, Valskis, Cernych.

Subs: Zubas, Gertmonas, Mikuckis, Grigaravicius, Verbickas, Matulevicius, Verbickas, Matulevicius, Paulius, Klimavicius, Eliosius, Borovskij, Luksa, Baravykas.

[26 March 2017 16:10 · Mark Critchley]

England's support ended up making more headlines than the team on Wednesday.

Gareth Southgate doesn't want a repeat of that today...

[26 March 2017 16:20 · Mark Critchley]

Did we get a glimpse of a bright future for England the other night?

Their no 10 certainly impressed. 

[26 March 2017 16:26 · Mark Critchley]

Are England good enough to challenge at next year's World Cup?

[26 March 2017 16:30 · Mark Critchley]

Lukas Podolski destroyed England on the pitch in Dortmund, then he destroyed them off it. 

[26 March 2017 16:31 · Mark Critchley]

This is quite cool.

[26 March 2017 16:33 · Vithushan Ehantharajah]

Southgate names an attacking line-up

So, as expected, Gareth Southgate has abandoned the three-man defence that impressed against Germany, reverting to a very Manchester City-esque 4-1-4-1 formation, with Eric Dier stationed just in front of Michael Keane and John Stones.

Raheem Sterling returns to the starting line-up while Dele Alli and Adam Lallana are retained, so expect to see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain start out wide, as England look to put an early goal past their defensive opponents. 

[26 March 2017 16:40 · Mark Critchley]

Southgate takes a much more flexible attitude to captaincy than his predecessors.

Joe Hart thinks that's a good thing.