England Remain Humble In Victory Over Belgium

Gareth Southgate sees there is still room for improvement England but describes a difficult victory over Belgium in the League of Nations (UNL) as an “important moment” for his players.

Mason Mount’s shot lifted England’s 2-1 win at Wembley despite the challenger having suffered a defeat since November 2018.

Both teams were awarded penalties in the first half with the visitors ahead, but England improved their game after the break to secure their 20th win in 21 games.

Despite being humble in successfully defeating the team that is at the top of the World Football Federation (FIFA) rankings, Southgate is happy with the performance of his men, especially in the defensive aspect.

“We can still improve. We can not be carried away by this victory, we have to continue it against Denmark, it should be the first and foremost approach,” he told Sky Sports.

“We are aware of the quality that our opponents have today and indeed we aspire to play consistently.

“Opportunities will be more limited in a match like this but it requires full focus with a detailed approach. To achieve a victory like this, it is a great success for us.

“We can practice attacking, get big goals but when faced with a best team, the details in how you defend as a team should be really accurate. In the second half, we dominate the match after struggling with the quality and movement of the opponent.”

Southgate then underlined the Belgian threat, particularly in the opening match which saw Romelu Lukaku open the scoring before Marcus Rashford equalized.

However, the England manager felt that the experience would provide long-term benefits to a number of younger and less experienced international players in terms of their development.

“They are good players, Belgium is a good team. Our defense is tested in various angles but it is difficult to answer those questions,” he said.

“A lot of decisions have to be made by our players on a defensive basis. To be sure, they caused us problems and we failed to organize the movement.

“We were a bit slow to move the ball over we did not pull their players to the wings to make it easier for us to survive.

“This is a tough clash and we have a lot of young players – Declan Rice, Mount, Trent Alexander-Arnold will all have a great experience.”