Jude Bellingham has defended England’s performance in opening Euro 2024 with a win over Serbia.
The Real Madrid midfielder, 20, scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory over their Group C rivals in Gelsenkirchen.
The display wasn’t the most fluid from Gareth Southgate’s side and they had to withstand pressure in the second-half as Serbia looked in vain for an equaliser.
They held on, however, to leave themselves in a strong position to progress to the next phase.
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When put to him that the first half might show why the side is among the tournament favourites and the second shows where they may still need to improve, he said: “Not quite. I don’t really agree with that.
“The first half shows why we can score goals against any team and the second half shows why we can keep clean sheet against any team.
“Obviously commonly with our team there’s always a negative theme around our games, and sometimes rightly so, but I think in this case you take the positives from the fact that, okay, maybe we had to hold on at times and suffer a little bit, but we kept a clean sheet and when you keep a clean sheet all you have to do is score one goal to win the game. It’s three points.
“This team is still so new and gelling together with every game, so I think inside the changing room we’ll be happy with that. Of course there’ll be negatives that we want to kind of rub out, but overall I’m pleased with that performance.”
England face Denmark next up on Thursday before closing out the group against Slovenia on June 25.
The two sides shared a draw and the points in their opening game on Sunday.
(Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
