Jude Bellingham’s remarkable season got even better as he scored the winner in England’s 1-0 triumph over Serbia at Euro 2024. England manager Gareth Southgate has admitted that the midfielder “writes his own script” after a talismanic performance in his first England game since winning La Liga and the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid earlier this month.
Gareth Southgate believes Jude Bellingham can write his own scripts at Euro 2024 after the midfielder’s goal proved decisive in England’s 1-0 win against Serbia.The Real Madrid star was making his first appearance for The Three Lions since helping Los Blancos win the UEFA Champions League, and he headed the ball past Predrag Rajkovic in the 13th minute to secure a closely fought win.
Gareth Southgate – He writes his own script
Serbia were the better side in a goalless second half, but Southgate’s team showed the defensive resilience they lacked against Iceland earlier this month to keep them at bay.The England boss believes Bellingham’s fairytale season can continue to go from strength to strength.
“He writes his own script,” he said. Southgate continued: “The timing of his run, and a super bit of build-up play too, and at different moments all of our forwards looked dangerous and did a really good job as a team.
“Today was just finishing, and a good save from the goalkeeper from a header at the end. “But that will come, I’m confident we’ll start scoring goals.
“Playing against a back five, it’s not easy to create chances, but we did. “One was enough, but I like the fact we had to suffer a bit without that ball, because that’s an area we’ve worked on a lot this week, and we’re so much better than we were last week. “He’s [Trent Alexander-Arnold] been really diligent balancing his position off. “Jude goes forward a lot so I thought Trent adapted to his positioning really well. Used the ball well, had a good effort on at goal.”
Kane content with support role
Harry Kane saw an effort pushed onto the crossbar by Serbia goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic in the second half, but he struggled to get on the ball throughout the rest of the clash. England’s all-time leading goalscorer insists he is happy to drop into unfamiliar areas of the pitch for the team.
“[On playing with Jude Bellingham] He is an unbelievable player, he deserves all the praise he is getting at the moment,” Kane said. “Just the way he plays, the confidence he plays with, and the way he impacts games. “It is important for players in his position to get goals and assists and that is what he does. “It was a great run into the box and he finished it off nicely. “I think each game will be different. Today I stayed a little bit higher because they like to play man-to-man; I wanted to keep them deep.”I think each game will be different, sometimes I’ll drop in and sometimes higher up but I think today was more about holding the ball up, especially in that second half and trying to see the game out like we did.”
Alexander-Arnold enjoying advanced position
Trent Alexander-Arnold revealed the tactical work undertaken after being deployed in a more advanced position in Sunday night’s match.
The Liverpool defender was played in central midfield alongside Declan Rice, and spoke about the steps he went through to make it a smooth transition. “It was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it,’ he told ITV Sport. “I felt prepared through the conversations and the work we’ve done throughout the week. “It may seem brand new [to many], but me, the manager and [assistant manager] Steve Holland, we’ve been working very hard on this role for the past year so a lot of preparation has gone into it. “A lot of information, learning and a lot of analysing has gone into it. So they gave me a role to do today and hopefully they feel like I executed it and helped to contribute to the win and a clean sheet.”
Source:Eurosport
