World Cup: Belgium defeat England to claim third spot

NEWS DIGEST – Thomas Muenier and Eden Hazard were on target as Belgium recorded a 2-nil victory over England in the third-place play-off at St. Petersburg.

Having narrowly missed out on a first ever World Cup final appearance after they were beaten by a solitary goal to France on Tuesday, the Red Devils of Belgium came into the encounter against England with high spirit and a point to prove.

They got reward for their passion just four minutes into the game after Muenier raced into the box to get across Danny Rose and tuck home Nacer Chadli’s classy low cross in from the left.

Belgium were fluid going forward and might have been further ahead had Jordan Pickford not clawed away a deflected Kevin De Bruyne finish.

On the other end, Kane should have brought England level 10 minutes later but, from an intelligent Raheem Sterling lay-off, scuffed wide of the left post.

Southgate responded to the deficit by introducing Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard in place of Sterling and Danny Rose at the interval.

Romelu Lukaku, Jesse Lingard, Harry Kane and Eric Dier all missed decent chances to find the back of the net in the second half with Kane amd Lukaku particularly watseful. The latter was hooked off on the hour mark, to be replaced by Dries Mertens.

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, a contender for the team of the tournament, kept his country in the game with a sublime one-handed save from Meunier in the 80th minute.

But it mattered little in the end, Hazard making no mistake with his near-post finish having been sent clean through by De Bruyne, the star pair combining to put a fitting seal on Belgium’s impressive showing in Russia.

The result represents Belgium’s best ever finish at a World Cup tournament, having previously finished fourth on two occasions.

As for England, they can take succour from Harry Kane being the likely golden boot winner with Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann three goals behind Kane’s tally of six.