THEY wanted to sign off for the season with a win. Third place at a World Cup, another building block for the future, would have really meant something special to Gareth Southgate. 10 Gareth Southgate salutes the fans as England's journey finally ends Credit: Alamy Live News Instead, England’s head coach got a no-show from his players. The brutal, depressing reality is that Belgium are a bit beyond them at the moment. Roberto Martinez’s side, picking up the bronze gong for finishing third, have done the double over England at a World Cup. Southgate’s men lost 1-0 in Kaliningrad on June 28 — when both teams fielded reserve line-ups for their final group clash — but they were comprehensively beaten in their final game in St Petersburg. LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS UP FOR THE CUP World Cup could be held every TWO years after Fifa backs controversial plans EURO BLOW Southgate fears Super League will hurt England plans with players facing BANS BEST OF REST Messi & Ronaldo among European Super League best XI facing BAN from World Cup EUR OUT European Super League players could be BANNED from World Cups and national teams FOOTIE FEST Eden Park to stage 2023 Women’s World Cup opener with final set for Australia YOUR TIMO'S UP Watch Chelsea’s Werner miss SITTER in shock Germany loss to North Macedonia THIERRY THREATS Henry got bodyguard for daughter after handball goal against Ireland WALES 1 CZECH Rep 0 James heads winner to boost World Cup qualifying dream in fiery clash 10 Danny Rose was at fault for the first goal Credit: Alamy Live News Even so, these England players deserve a pat on the back. They exceeded expectations, way beyond anybody’s dreams or aspirations when they landed in Russia nearly five weeks ago. Reaching a World Cup semi-final, especially after years of tournament misery, should have given England a bit of a swagger. The depressing reality is that Belgium are further ahead in their development with this batch of players. Roy Keane says England have a ‘long way to go’ before challenging for a major tournament 10 Southgate saw his side beaten by a better team Credit: Getty - Contributor 10 Jesse Lingard looks on Credit: Getty - Contributor Martinez’s side punished the Three Lions with goals from full-back Thomas Meunier after just four minutes and a belting finish from Chelsea’s dazzling winger Eden Hazard late on. The serious concern for England is that Belgium could step on the gas whenever they felt like it. When they did, with Kevin De Bruyne and Hazard having the time of their lives out there, England could not cope with their movement. 10 Eden Hazard slotted Belgium's second late on on the counter-attack Credit: Reuters Harry Kane reacts as England lose to Belgium and confirm fourth place finish at the World Cup Southgate’s players were beaten by a better, far more accomplished set of footballers. In a one-off game, a shootout for third place at a World Cup, the result does not matter so much. Nobody really remembers much about England’s 2-1 defeat to Italy in Bari at the 1990 World Cup and nobody really needs to care. For Southgate, the man who woke up at 4am on Friday to watch a re-run of the last-four defeat to Croatia, this is about the bigger picture. Belgium’s players are happy to trade punches, to rally cross-court, until the moment arrives when they can sniff out an opening. When they did, they asked questions of Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Fabian Delph, John Stones, Harry Maguire and Phil Jones. And when they did, England could not live with them. To win Euro 2020, or to look beyond that and target tournament glory at Qatar 2022, England will need better players on the field. They will refine, modify, tinker — but remember, so does everybody else. This sets the tone a little bit for the new season ahead, creating doubt about the direction of travel because Belgium were so ruthless. 10 Southgate looks on as Belgium celebrate ending on a high Credit: EPA 10 Phil Jones was given time on the pitch Credit: Getty - Contributor Martinez’s team had conviction and quality, playing with composure following their semi-final defeat to France. They were much better than England. Meunier got their early opener, sending a neatly-taken half-volley beyond Jordan Pickford when he connected with Nacer Chadli’s cross. Thibaut Courtois had gone long, the keeper launching the ball towards Chadli hovering on the halfway line. His downward header fell to Romelu Lukaku and the Manchester United forward sent Chadli scampering down the left. 10 Southgate talks with Rose after the match Credit: AFP 10 He also spoke with Eric Dier after the 2-0 defeat Credit: Alamy Live News Chadli’s cross beat England’s defenders, falling neatly to the onrushing Meunier. It was an excellent finish. They wanted more, with Pickford pawing away De Bruyne’s first-half effort after a defensive lapse by Kieran Trippier and Stones. Hazard, who went on to score in the second half, got a shot away before the break that was eventually hooked over the bar by Toby Alderweireld on the follow-up. England then spluttered into life, with Raheem Sterling spotting Harry Kane on the edge of the box midway through the half. Kane, still leading the race for the Golden Boot with six goals, sent his effort wide. For some reason, Kane’s killer touch deserted him in the final three games of the tournament. Those moments swing matches. Roy Keane GOES IN on England defence after World Cup third-place play off loss to Belgium 10 England finished fourth at the World Cup as Kane went through a mini goal drought Credit: EPA Southgate sent for reinforcements, with Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford on for Rose and Sterling at the break. It gave England a lift, with Rashford setting up Dier for a chance to equalise when he was in space down the right side of the box. Dier dinked his shot over Courtois, but Tottenham club-mate Alderweireld got back in time to clear off the line.<doc-sep>The starting lineups are likely to change — perhaps significantly — from each side’s semifinal match. This makes any forecast a cloudy one. But if they play, all eyes will be on England’s Harry Kane and Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku, possibly the best reasons to watch this consolation game. Kane leads the Golden Boot standings with six goals, while Lukaku has four. Lukaku has scored all of his from open play. But he has failed to score since the tournament’s second game, a cold streak that contributed to Belgium’s semifinal shutout against the French. Half of Kane’s goals have come from the penalty spot. His last goal came in the round-of-16 match against Colombia — from the penalty spot.<doc-sep>46’: Stones Off For England One sub for England at halftime: Harry Maguire comes on for Stones, who looked to be getting some minor treatment on his left calf on the bench. Looks like Maguire will play on the left in the back three, with Cahill, a more tradtional center back, sliding into the middle. We’re back under way. No changes for Belgium. Halftime: No Goals, but Belgium Leads in Yellows Belgium leads five yellow cards to two, which means England would go through if this result holds. Let’s hope it doesn’t, because it’d be nice to see a goal. Or a shot or two on target. Or some running. Something. Anything. Matthew Futterman: It’s halftime, and the actual England takes the field to kick the ball around. Kane, Sterling and Co. This match feels more like a friendly. Belgium’s manager, Roberto Martinez, said yesterday the game would be a “celebration.” That’s one word for it. 43’: Crowd Lets Belgium Have It More boos as Belgium passes the ball around. This isn’t an amateur crowd, and THEY WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY YOU BELGIUM. Russian TV just showed Hazard, Lukaku and De Bruyne on the bench and I’m hoping they didn’t show that in the stadium because that would have been serious trolling of this crowd after what we’ve seen from their replacements. 40’: The Notion of Fair Play No goals and the only highlights of the half are the two Belgium yellows, a mockery of the notion of fair play that will not go unpunished when the history of this tournament is writ .... kidding. They were both yellows, and it’s hard to get mad about either, even if you’re English. 38’: Hazard Lets One Fly Nice one-two by Fellaini and Batshuayi in the area yields a shot for a late-arriving Hazard. He makes one fan in Row LL very happy with his shot. The rest of us? Less so.<doc-sep>Perhaps, trying to be optimistic, it might work out better this way, after all. Maybe England will have the chance later in this tournament to be grateful they avoided the possibility of a quarter-final against Brazil. And, without wishing to get too far ahead of ourselves, perhaps this defeat will not matter greatly if England can find themselves in a position whereby it is Sweden or Switzerland trying to prevent them reaching the semi-finals rather than, in theory, the five-times world champions. Alternatively it might just be that England come to regret the night Gareth Southgate chose to field a vastly changed lineup – a vastly weakened one, too, on this evidence – when the reward for preserving their place at the summit of Group G would have been a tie against Japan in the last 16. Instead England fell flat on a strangely subdued evening, full of intrigue but low on drama with the category-A players from both sides watching from the bench. It was a calculated gamble from Southgate and Adnan Januzaj’s winner, six minutes into the second half, means England will now have to take on Colombia next Tuesday, whereas Belgium get the plum tie against Japan the previous night. Players from both side watch in awe as Adnan Januzaj’s winner flies past Jordan Pickford. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters Japan, to put it into context, are 61st in Fifa’s world rankings, just above Honduras, Finland, Mali and Cape Verde, yet six places worse off than the Panama side England have already walloped for six. Colombia will represent a much sterner challenge and there are bound to be questions about Southgate’s thinking if the game in Moscow goes badly. Southgate plainly felt it was a risk worth taking, making eight changes and giving Harry Kane the night off. Even when England were behind, Southgate resisted any temptation to call for the player who is currently leading the Golden Boot scoring charts. Instead it was Danny Welbeck who was brought off the bench. Kane was there, in his kit, and so were Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard, Dele Alli and quite a few others. Marcus Rashford could not beat Thibaut Courtois with England’s outstanding chance and in the closing minutes it could hardly be described as an onslaught on the Belgian goal. And yet Southgate did not seem too crestfallen. As a spectacle this was a difficult one to assess. Roberto Martínez had put out a form of Belgium-lite, meaning the game went ahead with Thorgan Hazard, rather than his brother Eden, running at Phil Jones. Kevin De Bruyne’s absence further diminished Belgium’s powers. Romelu Lukaku was also given the night off, among nine changes, and it was a shame in many ways that the outstanding fixture of the group should be deprived of so many elite players. Hypothetical, perhaps, but it would have been much better fun if this fixture had been the first or second match, rather than with both teams already qualified. This was Southgate’s supporting cast apart from Jordan Pickford in goal and John Stones in the centre of defence and, though Ruben Loftus-Cheek also kept his place, it was difficult not to think that was to give the fit-again Alli more recovery time for the possibility of two games in the coming week. Nobody could say the two teams had been instructed to forgo their competitive instincts and, early on, Belgium’s players could be seen trying to convince the referee the ball might have crossed the goalline after a handling error from Pickford led to Gary Cahill’s recovery clearance. Equally there were other moments when whistles could be heard from the crowd, frustrated by the lack of penalty-box incident. This had been such an attractive fixture but, with both teams experimenting, something was lost. The tempo had changed. England had played with so much raw energy in their first two games. Belgium had, too – but not here. The tell-tale sign was when the first Mexican wave snaked round the stadium. On and on it went until it reached the end decorated in St George’s flags and, as always, died out immediately. Another one started and the same again. It made an interesting spectacle – the people throwing their arms in the air versus the saboteurs – but this was midway through the first half and did not say an awful lot for the match. An enthralled crowd does not usually need to make its own entertainment. England barely created a noteworthy chance in the opening 45 minutes. Rashford flickered only sporadically. Jamie Vardy found it difficult to make any kind of impression and the wing-backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Danny Rose, seemed reluctant to venture too far forward. Rose, in particular, had a poor evening because he will have to accept a sizeable degree of culpability for Belgium’s goal. Januzaj deserves a lot of credit for a splendid strike once he had twisted past Rose with a little feint, a drag-back and a change of body direction. From an England perspective, however, Rose was beaten too easily and it was a flat-footed attempt to stop the danger. Januzaj was coming in from the right and let fly with a diagonal, rising shot that flew over Pickford despite the goalkeeper getting his fingers to the ball. Finally there was a sense of urgency from England’s players. It was only briefly, though, and the game petered out without a great deal happening. Belgium’s understudies had outdone their English counterparts and Southgate will be glad to have Kane et al back for their next assignment.<doc-sep>
The English nation has spent three days imagining what it might have been like to play a World Cup final, and then over 90 minutes in this Saturday in Fifa’s glorified friendly for third place, wondering if that lost final could have been a chastening experience for a young team. After 56 days, two friendlies, seven World Cup games, and 12 goals Southgate and his squad will board their plane for Birmingham on Sunday lunchtime having suffered two straight defeats that gave them a fair idea of where they stand in world football. Against Belgium, they were permitted more of the ball before being punished by the the irresistible counter-attacking of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne who never had to hit top gear. The ringcraft of Croatia in the semi-final, then the big beasts of the Belgian golden generation, both of whom have qualities that Gareth Southgate’s side will have to learn in time for Qatar 2022. Whether there are potentially English players of the standard of the two leading lights in the Belgium side is by no means certain but Southgate’s XI, average age 25, were at least two years behind their more experienced opponents. After the euphoria of the national team’s first World Cup semi-final in 28 years the last two games have been a bit more like the evening out of expectations. Certainly, this not a classic, with no need for the big screen in Hyde Park. There were five changes to the team that lost the semi-final to Croatia, and Southgate was later open about the fact that some of his players were not in a physical condition to play. He said that his players had not been able to train in the two days previous that had followed the defeat to Croatia and it showed in their start, behind within four minutes to a goal that went from Thibaut Courtois’ hands to the back of the England net in a matter of seconds. It meant that Belgium could control the game after that and even if they did not have the majority of the possession they never really looked like losing the edge over England.