Belgium 2-0 England: Youri Tielemans and Dries Mertens end England’s Nations League hopes

Monday 16 November 2020

SMA News – Nations League

Report as first-half goals from Youri Tielemans and Dries Mertens end England’s chances of qualifying for knockout phase of Nations League; Harry Kane, on his 50th appearance for England, sees header cleared off the line by Romelu Lukaku

England’s hopes of making back-to-back Nations League finals are over after they fell to a 2-0 defeat away to world No 1 side Belgium.

Youri Tielemans’ deflected drive on 10 minutes got the hosts off to a fast start in Leuven and, after England passed up a couple of good opportunities to hit back immediately, Dries Mertens (23) clipped home a fine free-kick after a controversial foul was called against Declan Rice.

England spent most of the remainder of the match on the front foot, with half-chances falling to Mason Mount, Jack Grealish, and Harry Kane who, on his 50th appearance for his country, had seen an earlier header cleared off the line by Romelu Lukaku.

But there was no way back against a Belgium side who have not lost a competitive home match for over a decade and now England’s attentions will turn to their final Nations League Group A2 fixture against Iceland at Wembley on Wednesday.

While there will be little riding on the outcome of that one – England are guaranteed to finish third, with Belgium and Denmark playing for a place in the finals – Gareth Southgate will have to use the fixture with Iceland to look for solutions for next summer’s European Championships, where England will hope to compete with the likes of Belgium for the trophy.