"ENGLAND FAIL TO QUALIFY FOR NATIONS LEAGUE FINALS"  BBC

Belgium Team

England Team

    Match Report by Mike Payne

The England players wore black armbands in Belgium, after the news earlier in the day that former England goalkeeping legend, Ray Clemence had passed away.  The former Liverpool and Spurs custodian won 61 caps for his country, and he will never be forgotten as long as football is played.

This match was a strange one in many ways, with England dominating their hosts for long spells of the game, but never really looking likely to overcome two early goals from Belgium.  The worse possible thing that England needed was an early goal against them.  They had started quite well, with a good tempo to their play, but just as they were settling down a bad mistake by Eric Dier in the 10th minute, giving the ball away to Romelu Lukaku, led to the first goal.  Lukaku found Youri Tielemans who had time and space to fire in a shot which deflected off the foot of Declan Rice and Jordan Pickford’s fingers to go in off the post.

It was a bitter blow, made even worse by an immediate swift counter attack two minutes later, that led to two chances for England in a minute.  A fine move down the right just failed as a cross came in and Tobias Alderweireld made a brilliant block to save a goalbound flick by livewire Jack Grealish.  Then from the resultant corner, Harry Kane’s header beat Thibaut Courtois only for Lukaku to come from nowhere to make a fantastic headed clearance off the line.  It was ‘tear your hair out time’ for the England fans watching! 

Grealish then fired in a curler, which once again was blocked by a defender.  The blocking throughout by the experienced Belgian defenders was outstanding, so much so that Courtois was rarely extended.  If that wasn’t enough, the Belgians took a two goal lead in the 24th minute with only their second shot on target.  The Dutch referee made a poor decision to penalise Rice for a foul on Kevin de Bruyne on the edge of the England box, when the West Ham player clearly and cleanly won the ball.  The wall was formed but Dries Mertens curled a delightful free-kick over the defenders beating Pickford all ends up.

That second goal deflated England for a while and they needed to score next if they were to have any chance of topping the group with a win here.  There was a good rapport building between Grealish and Kane, and several times the pair created good chances.  Belgium could see the danger and repeatedly fouled the blossoming Aston Villa man.  One move between the pair set up a chance for Mason Mount in the 34th minute, but his shot was blocked by Jan Vertonghen.

England then lost Ben Chilwell to a back injury on 40 minutes with Bukayo Saka coming on to replace the Chelsea player. 

Just before the break Mertens spots Pickford off his line and hits a shot from the half-way line, but the ball sails harmlessly wide.  Then Axel Witsel is booked by the referee and Harry Kane shoots straight at Courtois, who pushes it away for a corner.  From the kick Mount should have done better with a header which went wide.

The first chance of the second-half fell to de Bruyne, but he scuffed his shot wide, whilst at the other end Alderweireld earned a booking for a foul on Kane to give England a free-kick on the edge of the box.  For some unknown reason Mount was entrusted with the kick, but he skied it high, wide and not so handsome.

In the 55th minute Thomas Meunier is booked for yet another foul on Grealish, the tally was mounting, but from the free-kick, Kieran Trippier also makes a hash of the opportunity.  A minute later and Meunier is very luck after he commits another nasty foul on Saka, but not even a free-kick was given, let alone a second yellow, which would have been deserved!  A series of fouls by the Belgians suggested that England were rattling them, but alas, the pressure could not be turned into goals.

With 20 minutes left Gareth Southgate sent on Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jadon Sancho to try to inject some pace against the tiring home defence.  But the problem was Belgium already had the two goal lead, and they were quite content to sit on that and make England do all the work.  Ironically, in the 77th minute Lukaku almost grabbed a third goal, after a pass from de Bruyne found the striker clear.  But his shot was well blocked by Pickford and the ball was cleared.

England continued to have the best of this half and Kane, not giving up just yet, was still creating and having shots at goal.  In the 85th minute he poked in a shot from Saka’s cross only to see, once again, a desperate block by a defender, in this case his old Tottenham teammate Vertonghen.  Near the end both Witsel and Lukaku went close before the referee ended the game and England’s challenge in this competition.

Southgate’s young team had done very well, but that bad start and the unavailability of some star players unfortunately took its toll.  The only real shining light for England was in the performance of Grealish.  He really showed that he is made for this level.
        

Source Notes