England lose to Belgium and have to settle for fourth at World Cup

England ended a World Cup campaign that will live long in the memory with a 2-0 defeat against Belgium, meaning a fourth-placed finish for Gareth Southgate’s men.

With both teams suffering the pain of semi-final defeat only a few days ago, this was a game they possibly could have done without.

But it was an entertaining match in Saint Petersburg, with Belgium deserving of their second victory over England in this tournament, which came courtesy of goals from Thomas Meunier and Eden Hazard.

AS IT HAPPENED: England v Belgium in third-place play-off match

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IN PICTURES: England take on Belgium for third place

Southgate made five changes from the team that suffered that agonising semi-final defeat to Croatia on Wednesday. Belgium boss Roberto Martinez made just two from his line-up that lost to France in the last four.

Belgium had the ideal start, scoring after just four minutes. A fine pass from Romelu Lukaku set up Nacer Chadli, who crossed low for Meunier to score from close range.

Soon after, Jordan Pickford made a fine one-handed save from a fierce Kevin de Bruyne drive, as England struggled to settle.

But Southgate’s team did come into the match as the first half progressed, and they had a big change to equalise when Raheem Sterling fed Harry Kane in space, who scuffed his shot wide of a post.

After the break England came close to levelling again, when Belgium switched off at the back, and Jesse Lingard crossed in hard and low, the ball just evading Kane.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Kane, but the Tottenham man should have the consolation of winning the Golden Boot, unless French superstars Kylian Mbappe or Antoine Griezmann score a hat-trick for France against Croatia in Sunday’s final.

Belgium looked the superior side for most of the match, as their team packed with Premier League superstars clearly wanted to sign off from their campaign on a high.

England however came close to equalising with three big chances midway through the second half. First, Eric Dier combined with Marcus Rashford with a lovely one-two, and chipped the ball over Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, only for Toby Alderweireld to brilliantly clear off the line. Soon after, both Dier and Harry Maguire headed wide with fine opportunities.

At the other end, with both defences becoming stretched, a superb counter-attack involving Hazard, Dries Mertens and De Bruyne finished with Pickford magnificently palming away a stinging Meunier shot.

Belgium then sealed their victory nine minutes from time, the excellent Hazard holding off Phil Jones and slotting with aplomb into the net.

Fourth place for England, after a third defeat of the tournament. But there were far more positives than negatives, and the nation will welcome Southgate and his team home with pride.

Speaking after the game, England boss Southgate said: “I think they’re a better side than us. We had to play flat out. The reality is we had a day less to recover. Great credit to them (Belgium) – they’ll probably think they should have got further.

“My players have given everything, right to the final whistle. I think we are competitive in every game, we’ve overcome a lot of landmarks. Finishing in the top four is probably above where we are. The players deserve every credit.

“Belgium are at their peak, we’re nowhere near our peak now. I think we’ve tried to maximise the players we’ve had. It’s not club football, we can’t go and buy players. The players that were here have acquitted themselves magnificently. I couldn’t have asked more of them.”

Kane said: “I thought the second half we played really well, we had them on the ropes for the first half hour of that. Obviously the second goal killed us, the players couldn’t give any more.

“We wanted to finish on a high, it shows we can still learn and still get better. We’ve closed it (the gap to the top teams) for sure, but this shows there’s still room for improvement. We’re not the finished article.

“We’ve made huge strides. We don’t want to wait another twenty odd years, this is the level we’ve got to stay at now. If I do win the Golden Boot, it will be something I’m very proud of.”

Who was England’s star man?

Jordan Pickford capped an excellent World Cup tournament with a reminder of why he has been so impressive for England.

There was little he could do for Thomas Meunier’s early goal, but he pulled off one excellent stop in from Kevin De Bruyne to keep England in the match when they were under pressure.

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Twice he was called upon to show his anticipation when he raced off the line in the first and then the second half to pick the ball off Romelu Lukaku’s toes when the English defence failed to track their man. Then came a really fine late save from a Meunier shot.

Pickford will go back to Everton as England’s undisputed number one, having excelled since a disappointing failure to stop Adnan Janzuaj’s winner back in the group stage.

What has happened to Danny Rose’s socks?

Danny Rose caused some first-half head scratching – and not because of how off the pace he was when Belgium scored their early goal.

His socks were covered in holes and nobody seemed to quite know why. The Tottenham left-back left social media asking questions – of how he was dressed and his defensive capabilities.

He was hauled off at half-time but the switch couldn’t bring a change of fortunes for England.

Opta Match Stats

• Belgium have registered their best finish at a World Cup tournament, finishing third and beating their previous best finish of fourth in 1986.

• England have lost three of their last five matches (W1 D1) – their previous three defeats came over a period of 28 matches.

• The Three Lions lost back to back matches for the first time since June 2014, when they were beaten by Italy and Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup.

• This was England’s 100^th match at a major tournament (69 at the World Cup, 31 at the European Championships). They have won 39, drawn 32 and lost 29 of those matches.

• Since 1966, no player has been involved in more World Cup goals for Belgium than Eden Hazard (7, 3 goals and 4 assists), level with Jan Ceulemans (4 goals, 3 assists).

• England lost three matches at a major tournament for only the second time, also losing three times at Euro 1988.

• Thomas Meunier was the 10^th different player to score for Belgium at the 2018 World Cup – the joint-most scorers by a team at a World Cup tournament (also 10 for France in 1982 and Italy in 2006).

• Harry Kane ended the 2018 World Cup with six goals from six shots on target – however, he had just one shot on target in his final four World Cup matches, doing so from the penalty spot against Colombia.

• This was only the third time that England have lost two matches in a calendar year against the same opponent, also losing twice against Wales in 1936 and twice against Italy in 1973.

• England had as many shots on target in this match as they managed in their previous three knockout matches combined (6).