LIONS ROAR BACK TO STUN BELGIANS
ENGLAND came from behind to beat Belgium and move top of their Nations League group as Gareth Southgate’s side showed guile rather than style at Wembley.
Romelu Lukaku continued his fine international form by breaking the deadlock from the penalty spot, with England conceding for the first time since a loss in the Czech Republic exactly a year ago.
But the Three Lions enjoyed their fair share of luck and levelled through a penalty of their own, Marcus Rashford toasting his MBE with the equaliser, before Mason Mount’s deflected effort earned a 2-1 victory.
The win takes England above their visitors and top of Group A2 as they look to repeat their feat of reaching the inaugural finals last summer.
Belgium boss Roberto Martinez had got the better of Southgate twice during the 2018 World Cup, winning a dead-rubber group game and the third-place play-off.
But this time England secured victory over the team currently ranked best in the world, despite Harry Kane only being fit enough for the bench and Raheem Sterling out altogether through injury.
Belgium, too, had some key names missing, with Real Madrid pair Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard unavailable to Martinez.
England thought they had fallen behind inside the opening 10 minutes, only for Yannick Carrasco’s crisp finish to be ruled out for offside against Thomas Meunier in the build-up.
It was a short reprieve for the hosts, who conceded a penalty just five minutes later, Lukaku bursting into the box before being felled by Eric Dier.
And former Everton and Manchester United forward Lukaku dusted himself off before thrashing the spotkick past Jordan Pickford.
Belgium were beginning to take control of proceedings and Kevin de
Bruyne forced Pickford into a low save.
Meunier’s skewed strike left Pickford scrambling across his goal, but the effort squirmed wide, with England unable to keep possession.
England slowly worked their way into the game and were awarded a soft penalty of their own as Meunier was adjudged to have pulled down Jordan Henderson at a corner.
Rashford stepped up and made no mistake, sending Simon Mignolet the wrong way get England back on level terms.
England wanted another penalty soon after the restart when Dominic Calvert-Lewin, starting in attack in placed of Kane, went down under pressure from Jason Denayer, but this time Stieler was unmoved.
England were growing as an attacking threat, playing almost solely on the break, and that was the way they took the lead.
There was more than a hint of good fortune about Mount’s goal, the Chelsea man collecting Kieran Trippier’s knockdown and seeing his curling strike deflect off Toby Alderweireld and loop up over Mignolet.
And de Bruyne’s final action of the night before also being substituted was to play a defence-splitting pass through to Carrasco, who could only shoot wide as Pickford closed down the space.
Kane passed up the opportunity to wrap up the win as he headed Trippier’s
corner off target from the middle of the goal.
Rashford, too, missed a fine chance, exchanging passes with Declan Rice before arrowing a shot over the bar to give hope to the visitors.
But England held on to secure a hard-fought victory in front of an empty Wembley, with Denmark the next team to visit.
Mount said: “We’re coming into the game knowing they are ranked number one in the world, so we knew they were going to be on it.
“They’re a very, very good team with very good players.
“We knew we had to start sharp and we had to be on it defensively because they’re very good around the box, play very good football, make it very tough to press and win the ball back so they made it tough for us.
“We tried to keep the ball better in their half, create chances and, as well, I think we had a couple of chances.
“The ones that go in, you take them all day.”