Bellingham FC: Serbia 0-1 England - Match Review
England kick off the Euros with a hard fought win against a tough Serbian side
I’ve predicted that England will win the Euros and I stand by it. Watching the coverage of England’s opening match for the competition by the BBC was refreshing because there was clearly a real optimism surrounding our team’s chances of winning the championships. Gary Lineker was all trimmed out, Rio Ferdi5 was on punditry alongside a smiley Micah Richards and a sexy Cesc Fabregas: it was all good.
There’s no denying we have serious attacking talent in the likes of Jude Bellingham (who we’ll get to later, for sure), Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and of course, the talismanic Harry Kane. The BBC did run a great video package cataloguing all of England’s failures and near-successes in major tournaments, but there definitely is a real sense that an England success is well overdue - this tournament may be it: tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
Over the past couple of days, the football pundits across the two main channels (ITV and BBC) have made a big deal over the fact that Trent would start in the midfield for Gareth Southgate’s side, which I didn’t understand: we don’t have a defence to shout about and this is tournament football - it really is about which team scores the most goals, rather than which team keeps the most clean sheets.
We started with a very attacking team, which was pleasing to see. I was doubly impressed by how strong we were looking in the tunnel: the likes of John Stones, Declan Rice, and Kane were all wearing serious faces - I was loving it.
The first 35 minutes or so was pretty much all us. Our attacking play was very dynamic, particularly apt given that Serbia was playing with a flat back five and a flat midfield four to stifle our front three and three in the midfield. Bellingham was all over the place in a very good way: he was picking up the ball deep, marauding through the midfield whenever he could, and providing the decisive blow when it mattered in the attacking third.
Within the first 15 minutes of the game he puts us 1-0 up with a bullet header into the top left corner from a great delivery against the odds from Saka on the right. The lead was well deserved since we were playing so well. Kyle Walker was getting good interceptions in and running down the right whenever he can to stretch the Serbian defence, Foden was being his usual busy-bee self, creating confusion for the Serbian centre backs - yeah, also, don’t expect me to cite any Serbian footballers by name because they have very complicated names.
But Bellingham was the main man of the first half - so much so that I forgot our all time top scorer was actually on the pitch. Alan Shearer and Guy Mowbray on commentary were creaming themselves on the mic though because of him, perhaps a bit too much. At one point I was confused as to what I was tuning in for: I was wondering if the BBC was broadcasting porn or an England game for a second or two.
Yet by the end of the first half, Serbia were growing into the game. Aleksander Mitrovic was throwing his weight about in textbook fashion up top, and they were getting some crosses in for Stones and Marc Ghuei to deal with with relative ease.
The second half was when things started to get real though: I realised that the BBC was televising an England game after all. Serbia stepped up their game: I don’t know what Strahinja Pavlovic took at half-time (probably a rocket up his arse from the gaffer) because Saka absolutely lost every battle he had with him from the start of that half. It was strange, it was as if Saka was up against a force-field.
The Pressure Serbia was applying was more or less consistent throughout the second half. We tried our best to regain some semblance of control and discipline in our play: Rice, Jarred Bowen, Jordan Pickford, and Conor Gallagher were all standout performers during that half, as they kept our lead, pressed us up the pitch when necessary, and slowed the game down whenever they could.
Foden was absolutely shocking though. If he gets selected to start next game over Cole Palmer he should be doing backflips.
Nonetheless, we showed real grit by the end, and we came away with three well-deserved points. I only sense our performances will get better from here: onward we trudge to face Denmark.