Youri Tielemans scored twice for Belgium in his final game before Gareth Southgate’s call-up for Euro 2024 on Tuesday, before Jude Bellingham added a late goal , saved England’s 2-2 draw at Wembley. Injury-plagued England, one of the favorites to win the European Championship in Germany, performed well in attack but Tielemans took advantage of defensive errors. The Aston Villa midfielder opened the scoring after a serious error by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and headed in Ivan Toney’s first-half penalty equalizer.
Belgium survived a flurry of attacks from England and looked set to win in front of more than 80,000 fans before Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham scored in injury time.
The draw was a welcome boost for England, who lost 1-0 to Brazil at Wembley on Saturday, their first loss since the 2022 World Cup quarter-final defeat to France First loss.
England coach Southgate said: “Jude is of course the headline news. This competitive spirit, that desire not to lose, the desire to win in the end played a decisive role in the goal at the last moment.”
“But I thought the whole team showed that throughout the game and bounced back from a setback against an inexperienced team.”
Southgate had to deal with multiple absences during the March international window, with defender John Stones having issues when he was forced off early in heavy rain in London and replaced by Joe Gomez. becomes more serious.
The head coach said he was “lost” when asked who would be involved in the European Championships starting in June.
“The best thing is definitely the positivity some of the players have shown from the opportunities they’ve had, so we probably have a little more depth in one area, but injuries are an issue,” he added.
“We have a lot of players out at the moment and the real heat of the season is still to come… We won’t know what we have left until the end.”
Tielemans pounces
Belgium, playing without the injured Kevin De Bruyne, took the lead in bizarre fashion in the 11th minute.
Pickford attempted a pass out of position but could only collect Everton teammate Amadou Onana, who released Tielemans who coolly fired into the bottom corner.
But the home side equalized six minutes later when United starlet Kobe Minu, making his first international start, linked up with Bellingham before the Real Madrid defender fed Toni, who was tripped by Jan Vertonghen.
In the absence of captain Harry Kane, Toney took the penalty kick himself and nonchalantly scored the ball to make the score 1-1.
The game started with Jeremy Doku forcing a fine save from Pickford and England forward Jarrod Bowen’s header being ruled out for offside.
Bellingham missed from close range with only goalkeeper Mats Sayers to beat.
Instead, the visitors – who are fourth in the FIFA world rankings, one place below their opponents – regained their lead, much to the delight of fans.
Lewis Dunk, who replaced the absent Harry Maguire at centre-back, failed to deal with an overhead long ball and Belgium captain Romelu Lukaku pounced on it.
The forward’s wonderful cross with the outside of his left foot went straight to the diving Tielemans, who scored with a powerful header in the 36th minute.
The game fell into a similar pattern after the break, with England enjoying the majority of possession but the visitors still posing a threat heading into the break.
Bellingham missed a great chance to equalize the score with a header from close range, but he made the final shot in the 95th minute.
Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco said he was disappointed to miss out on a “special and wonderful” win but admitted England were strong.
“They created many, many chances,” he said. “We had a feeling from the start that they wanted to win the second game in this (international) training camp and that’s why I think the result was pretty good.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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