Bellingham bails out England
Jude Bellingham scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw for England against Belgium in their friendly match yesterday.
Two first-half goals from Youri Tielemans had Belgium in control at Wembley Stadium, but Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham continued his outstanding form to fire an equaliser from close range. It was his 22nd goal of the season for club and country.
Tielemans had struck in the 11th and 36th minutes, while England’s Ivan Toney scored from the penalty spot in the 17th on his first start for his country.
But as the game went deep into stoppage time, England looked set to suffer back-to-back defeats, following Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Brazil as their makeshift defence continued to look all at sea.
That was until Bellingham controlled the ball in the box and side-footed past Belgium goalkeeper Matz Sels.
Belgium went ahead early on after an error from England keeper Jordan Pickford, whose clearance was intercepted by Amadou Onana.
With Pickford out of his goal, Onana played the ball to Tielemans, who fired low into the corner from outside of the box.
Toney evened the score from the penalty spot after being brought down by Jan Vertonghen — calmly shooting low to left and sending Sels the wrong way.
But Belgium were ahead before the break through Tielemans again.
Again England’s defending came up short, with Lewis Dunk failing to handle Romelu Lukaku on the right. The Belgium striker then curled a cross to the far post with the outside of the boot, which Tielemans met with a diving header.
England created a host of chances without levelling the game until Bellingham struck.
A potential setback for Southgate was an early injury to John Stones, who was substituted after just 10 minutes.
Germany substitute Niclas Fu¨ llkrug scored late to give the European Championship hosts a morale-boosting 2-1 win over the Netherlands in their friendly.
The excellent Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen tried fishing Fu¨ llkrug’s effort off the line in the 85th minute, but a check confirmed the ball had crossed the line, giving Germany their second win from two games after a 2-0 victory over France on Sunday.
It ended a Dutch run of four straight wins and rewarded Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann for a team shakeup that included six new faces and Toni Kroos’ return from international retirement.
The Real Madrid star’s corner provided the platform for Fu¨ llkrug to score the winner as Germany recovered from conceding an early goal.
A poor pass from Maximilian Mittelsta¨ dt for Jonathan Tah allowed Memphis Depay to cross for Joey Veerman, who scored with a volley in the fourth minute.
It gave Nagelsmann the conditions he had asked for before the game — a character test in the face of adversity for his players — who responded with ball possession before Mittelsta¨ dt atoned for his earlier mistake with the equaliser in the 11th.