England lose all momentum in bizarre clash of reserves
This was, by all accounts, the smart result for Gareth southgate and England. so why didn’t it feel that way?
Why, when Adnan Januzaj struck his excellent shot past former sunderland team-mate Jordan Pickford did it feel a bit familiar, a little bit here-we-go-again, a little bit like England had missed an opportunity to have a real go against a Belgium reserve team, win the group and keep their feelgood factor going through another summer weekend?
England are now in what has been termed the easy part of the draw. No Brazil in the quarter-finals and no countries considered tournament contenders until spain loom in the last four.
handy that. Yet before anyone can start anticipating the last four, or even the last eight, there is the little matter of Colombia in the round of 16 on Tuesday, of James Rodriguez — if he’s fit — in the tournament that made him four years ago, of Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado on missions to remake their reputations in England. Colombia look useful.
some Colombians have scores to settle. And in finding a way past a dangerous senegalese team yesterday, they passed a test far greater than any England have faced so far.
Belgium, meanwhile, go off to play Japan and looked rather happy about that. so what price all that jazz about Roberto Martinez wanting his team to lose? it did not appear that way. Belgium were the better side and could have won by two or three.
They deserved the win, conjured early in the second half when man of the match Youri Tielemans found the mercurial Januzaj, who bamboozled Danny Rose before lashing the ball past Pickford.
Belgian celebrations didn’t appear false at that moment. Nor did the manner in which they closed the game out. England had one big chance after that, when Jamie Vardy put Marcus Rashford through one-on-one, only for Thibaut Courtois to make an excellent save. But southgate’s side still look at their most dangerous from set-pieces.
At times, they also went quite long, too — a familiar trait when ideas are in short supply.
By contrast, Belgium were brilliant on the counter-attack. Dries Mertens forced a fine save from Pickford on 89 minutes, while Marouane Fellaini found the side-netting in stoppage time. Their reserves were far stronger than England’s.
This is a team that are tournament contenders. They are a different class to Japan and will be a match for Brazil, too.
England’s short-term future looks a little less certain.
After two wins against weak teams and a defeat to the first good one they have played — albeit reserves against reserves — Colombia await.
With so much positive momentum coming into this game, it feels like a trick has been missed and many experienced former professionals were saying as much.
Yes, at times in the past few days, it has been hard to work out what constituted success here. southgate said he wanted to win, but then left all but two of his best players out. Martinez spoke all week as if Belgium would happily slot into second place, then was considerably more ambitious once the game commenced.
Admittedly, Belgium indulged in a lot of keep-ball, cries of ‘ole’ greeting extended sequences of passing around at the back or in tame areas of midfield.
seeing substitute Romelu Lukaku happily chatting with Rose as the second half was about to restart summed the game up.
it looked like a World Cup match, but it often didn’t feel like one. it had the air of friendly, or one of those end-of-season games between two teams moored in mid-table.
There are precedents in international tournaments.
in addition to some famous and scandalous carve-ups, there have been games just like this one in which the two best teams in the group — instead of going at it hammer and tongs in the decider — let events take their course.
in 2006, holland and Argentina had qualified with a game to spare, so, instead of duking it out for group supremacy, played out a 0-0 draw with below-strength sides. The loss of momentum hardly served either well, mind.
holland went out in the next round, to Portugal, and Argentina were eliminated by Germany in the quarter-finals.
This was the risk southgate was taking: that by attempting to give his best players a break, he would let the air slip from the balloon. he spoke about the importance of awarding game-time to every member of his squad — and did, bar the goalkeepers — but this is a World Cup, not school sports day. Everyone is not a winner; everyone does not get a prize.
Yet it is hard to criticise southgate when Martinez did the same.
southgate made eight changes, Martinez nine; England’s starting Xi had played 557 minutes so far at this tournament, Belgium’s 441. southgate gave three players their first taste of this competition, Martinez likewise.
When the game kicked off, southgate had three members of his squad yet to feature in the tournament, two goalkeepers and one outfield player; Martinez too.
When the final whistle blew, only the spare keepers remained unused, for both teams. southgate wasn’t doing anything different to his opposite number.
Equally, the need to nurse key individuals through the demands of a tournament was illustrated by John stones’ disappearance at half-time. he sat on the bench, strapping on his left leg. it would be mad to take a chance in the circumstances.
England started well and a poor pass was pounced on by Jamie Vardy after two minutes, his cross kicked clear by Courtois. But, from that point, Belgium were the stronger attacking force.
Fellaini was causing problems. in the 27th minute, a corner from
Thorgan Hazard dropped on to his chest and he had time to bring it down before his shot was blocked on its way to goal.
All the time, Belgium were picking up yellow cards, adding to the false sense of security that they did not want to win this, Senegal having already exited the tournament having picked up more yellow cards than Japan. Already one up — so, in real terms, down — on England in bookings, Tielemans and Leander Dendocker were both cautioned for lunging challenges.
England’s best chances, as ever, were from set-pieces. There was a lovely, fluid build-up on 14 minutes that saw Phil Jones feed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Vardy glance a header wide, and Rashford curled a shot outside the post on 48 minutes, but Belgium’s reserves were better. By the end, England did not look big, or indeed clever.