LONDON • It was a fortuitous win, but after having lost their past two meetings - both at the 2018 World Cup - England will be buoyed by the Wembley confidence-booster.
That was the assertion of Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate after his side ground out a 2-1 victory over Belgium on Sunday.
The visitors arrived in London as the No. 1 side in the world following a run of 12 consecutive competitive wins.
It appeared the Red Devils would extend that streak after Romelu Lukaku's early penalty put them in front but England bounced back through Marcus Rashford's spot kick, before a wicked deflection saw Mason Mount grab the winner 25 minutes from time.
Both sides were missing key personnel - Southgate could not call on Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, while captain Harry Kane was only fit enough to feature as a second-half substitute. Belgium were without Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois.
But Roberto Martinez's men were the far brighter side from the start, with England forced to weather a Belgian storm.
While Belgium made their pressure count through Lukaku, they failed to build on their lead, with Yannick Carrasco wasting two gilt-edged chances, as the hosts, who are ranked world No. 4, worked their way back into the game.
Despite international football only restarting last month - some 10 months after the last matches were staged owing to the coronavirus pandemic - England have not shown much rustiness, with three wins in four games since.
Southgate believes that by upsetting Belgium, his side gave a glimpse of what they can achieve at next year's Euro 2020 and beyond.
"We are not going to face a more difficult game defensively," he said. "It was a brilliant test, the sort of test we need.
"That is the beauty of the Nations League, you get games against this level of opponent. It's a great experience for them, and to go and win it should give them a sense of what might be possible in the next few years.
"They caused us a lot of problems down the sides of our defensive block with overloading the wide areas, and we knew that would happen.
"But resolving those issues in real time, live, was difficult for the players, so it was a huge test to come through that."
Jordan Henderson, who drew the foul for Rashford's penalty, agreed, adding: "We want to compete with the very best teams, and Belgium are certainly that.
"We competed very well and that's what we want to do, keep competing and growing, and you never know where that may take us."
For Martinez, this was his second stumble in four days - they drew 1-1 with Ivory Coast in a friendly last Friday - and while he remains confident of getting revenge when England travel to Belgium next month for their reverse Nations League tie, he bemoaned the lack of a video assistant referee here.
Carrasco had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside call against Timothy Castagne, but the Spaniard insisted he was onside, claiming that "it would have been a very different game" had the technology been used.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
