THEY MUST DO BETTER
Belgium claim the bronze medals as England equal their best World Cup finish away from home but Southgate says...
HARRY KANE has emerged victorious, for now, but England lost.
And therefore, it was tempting to check whether Kane would have clenched his fist in delight when Romelu Lukaku — his nearest challenger for the Golden Boot but labouring yesterday — was withdrawn on the hour without adding to his tally.
Kane would do no such thing, of course. But it must have raised his spirits.
Clearly weary but determined, he saw it out to the end. Just one more game to navigate without Kylian Mbappe or Antoine Griezmann scoring a hat-trick to match his six goals and England will at least take something golden home from Russia.
But not bronze medals. They go to Belgium, certainly the better side despite a spirited second-half surge from England.
The sheer class of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne illuminated even this adrenaline-free game with their unplayable counter-attacks.
As such, Gareth Southgate’s team match Bobby Robson’s 1990 squad with a fourth-placed finish, still England’s best World Cup away from home shores.
Despite the anti-climactic nature of this half-hearted celebration of a game, anyone down south would have taken that a month ago.
‘It’s an incredibly difficult game for both teams,’ said Southgate.
‘You are so close to the biggest possible prize, and then everyone wants to go home at that point. They’ve been away for seven weeks.
‘We played one of the best teams in the world with some exceptional individual talent, with two days to prepare.
‘But in the second half the players were relentless, played some good football, and there were some incredible individual performances.
‘John Stones was absolutely outstanding and Jordan Pickford has had a wonderful tournament. We’ve finished in the final four, but we’re not a top-four team yet.’
To England’s credit, they gave it a good go against a side clearly superior to them, a point Southgate acknowledged.
In the second half, spurred on by Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jesse Lingard and Eric Dier, they did their very best.
They ran channels, dominated possession and, in a change from Wednesday against Croatia, returned to their passing game.
But their limitations found England out in the end. Or maybe Belgium’s brilliance did.
The more De Bruyne and Hazard shone, the more painful Belgium’s absence from the final must have been to that nation.
It did not look good for England when the team sheets arrived — Belgium had already shown they had better reserves than their opponents.
And here they played the first team, or near as, making just two changes. England made five with Dier, Loftus-Cheek, Danny Rose, Phil Jones and Fabian Delph coming in.
Pre-match fears were corroborated once the game begun.
Belgium immediately looked the sharper team.
So no surprises when, on four minutes, Thibaut Courtois kicked long, Nacer Chadli flicked on and Lukaku did well to hold up play.
He returned the ball to Chadli with finesse, his best contribution of the day.
But just as good was the run Thomas Meunier was making on the far flank.
He started level with Rose, drifted away, causing the wing-back to lose concentration, and then sprinted back in to receive Chadli’s cross, having lost Rose.
As such, Pickford had little chance and Meunier connected well and scored expertly.
When, on 12 minutes, Hazard found huge spaces in the England midfield, fed Lukaku whose cross was missed by Stones and ended up with De Bruyne, Southgate’s men looked in disarray.
But De Bruyne’s deflected shot was parried away by Pickford and Jones could clear.
England did respond with Dier’s excellent, raking pass into the feet of Sterling, who took the ball well and fed Kane.
A real chance opened up but Kane struck wide, looking much less like the conqueror of worlds he had seemed three weeks ago.
‘I think it would be wrong to judge any player on today’s game if their energy levels were short,’ said Southgate.
‘He’s captained the team exceptionally well. He’s led a culture we’re trying to create.’
But Belgium by now had caught the mood of the non-event and only sporadically contributed. Whistles rung around the stadium as England moved the ball around but with no clear purpose.
Still, the Belgians finished the half better, Toby Alderweireld volleying over spectacularly from Youri Tielemans’ chipped pass and Stones then doing well to hold off Lukaku one on one on the stroke of half-time.
On came Marcus Rashford and Lingard at half-time to inject some zest. Kieran Trippier’s throw on 52 minutes caught out Belgium and let Lingard in. He unleashed what looked like a shot and Kane almost turned it in.
Belgium responded, De Bruyne producing one of those glorious assists, playing in Lukaku on goal, whose poor touch allowed Pickford to come off his line smartly to block.
Delph was required to make a great tackle on Meunier when Hazard slid in the Paris Saint Germain wing-back on 63 minutes.
England’s best moment came on 70 minutes, Dier exchanging passes with Rashford so that he was clean through on goal.
With Courtois on-rushing, Dier executed a gentle chip, only for Alderweireld to appear, sliding in somehow to hook the ball away off the line.
Despite their growing dominance, it was Belgium who produced the classiest moment of the half on the counter-attack when De Bruyne and Dries Mertens contrived to traverse the length of the pitch exchanging back heels and passes, until Mertens fed Meunier, whose superb volley was met with another fine one-handed save from Pickford.
However, Belgium, it seemed, had merely been biding their time.
De Bruyne, excellent whatever the occasion, threaded one of those passes at which he is so apt.
It wrong-footed the unfortunate Jones, touched his heel and allowed Hazard in on goal, a reprise of May’s FA Cup final.
When Hazard drilled the ball past Pickford it felt like a mercy killing. Not so much to England but the occasion itself. A clear victor had emerged.
Belgium (3-4-3): Courtois 6.5; Alderwiereld 7, Kompany 6.5, Vertonghen 6; Meunier 7.5, Tielemans 5.5 (Dembele 78min, 6), Witsel 6, Chadli 6.5 (Vermaelen 39, 6); De Bruyne 8, Lukaku 7 (Mertens 60, 6.5), Hazard 7.5. Booked: Witsel. Subs (not used): Fellaini, Carrasco, Mignolet, Casteels, T Hazard, Januzaj, Boyata, Batshuayi, Dendoncker. England (3-5-2): Pickford 6.5; Jones 5.5, Stones 5.5, Maguire 6; Trippier 6, Loftus-Cheek 6 (Alli 85), Dier 6, Delph 5.5, Rose 5 (Lingard 6); Kane 5.5, Sterling 5 (Rashford 45, 6.5). Booked: Stones, Maguire. Subs (not used): Walker, Henderson, Vardy, Butland, Welbeck, Cahill, Young, Alexander-Arnold, Pope. referee: A Faghani (Iran) 6. attendance: 64,406.