England 1-0 Serbia: Jude Bellingham clinches hard-fought opening Euro 2024 win

By Sporting Life

Football

Mon June 17, 2024 · 10M ago

Jude Bellingham's first-half goal ensured England beat Serbia 1-0 in their Euro 2024 Group C opener in Gelsenkirchen.

Having started in dominant fashion, the Euro 2020 runners-up were duly rewarded with an opening goal inside 13 minutes.

Kyle Walker’s perfectly-weighted pass picked out Bukayo Saka’s run in behind and the Arsenal man crossed for Bellingham to head home.

Serbia's best chance of the first half fell to Aleksandar Mitrovic, who fired wide as he looked to capitalise on a mis-control from Trent Alexander-Arnold, but England then close again when a Walker cross somehow evaded everyone in the Serbia box.

Serbia managed to get more of a foothold on proceedings as the first half wore on and built on that pressure after the break, which ultimately led to Gareth Southgate abandoning the Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment for the evening with a little over 20 minutes remaining as Conor Gallagher was brought on in his place.

While England did still drop deeper and deeper, that substitution seemed to give them better control with Harry Kane denied only by the cross-bar before Jordan Pickford made a smart save from a speculative shot.

As Serbia pushed and pushed, Southgate’s side held firm to secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory.

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