Serbia 0-1 England analysis: Resilience the key for Bellingham-powered England
Monday, June 17, 2024
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Technical observers Fabio Capello and Ioan Lupescu give their insight into England's narrow win in Gelsenkirchen.
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Jude Bellingham made a decisive impact on the big occasion once more though England needed to show resilience in the face of an improved second-half display by Serbia in the sides' opening UEFA EURO 2024 Group C contest.
This was the verdict of UEFA technical observers Fabio Capello and Ioan Lupescu following Sunday night's 1-0 victory for Gareth Southgate's team in Gelsenkirchen.
Working together with the UEFA performance analysis unit, the observers highlighted the role of England No10 Bellingham, who collected the Player of the Match award for a performance that included his first EURO goal, as well as the tactical change by Serbia which enabled them to press England with much greater intensity in the second period.
To focus first on Bellingham, the observers said that "he was decisive in attack and defence, covered a lot of ground and scored the winner", and his 13th-minute strike was illustrative of this – as displayed in the first video below.
It is worth highlighting that Bellingham does not just put the ball into the net after a typical late run into the box but helps engineer the attack too by working the ball out to Kyle Walker on the right. From there, just nine seconds elapse before he scores with a flying header from Bukayo Saka's deflected cross. The timing of the run is key – and the fierce connection brings the 20-year-old's fourth goal for his country.
"The goal comes from a great movement between some great players," said Bellingham, scorer of England's opening goal of this tournament just as he was at Qatar 2022. "Those magic moments where it comes together so naturally are really nice," he added. "I try to just keep making the box because I know players can find me and I know I can deliver."
If England took the three points, Serbia could take encouragement from their second-half showing, which followed a switch from a 5-4-1 to a 5-3-2 according to the UEFA technical observers. "Serbia were more aggressive, more focused, pressing better in a 5-3-2," they said. This meant that Dušan Vlahović, who had dropped out to the right when Serbia defended in the first half, now joined Aleksandar Mitrović at the top of the pitch as Serbia pressed man for man high up the field.
England captain Harry Kane explained: "They changed their pressure a little bit. They went almost man for man, and we couldn't quite keep the ball well enough." As a measure of the effect on England, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford played more than twice as many long balls in the second half compared with the first – 20 to eight.
The second video above offers an example of Serbia's determined man-to-man pressing, showing the way centre-back Miloš Veljković follows Phil Foden high into England territory. According to the observers, Serbia were able to sustain their intensity with the help of fresh legs as, for example, Dušan Tadić and Luka Jović replaced Mitrović and Saša Lukić after 61 minutes.
Asserting this point, Serbia coach Dragan Stojković gave the following summary: "England are a very good, strong team, but we played a very brave game – the style of football we were aiming to play. With the changes, we managed to get where we wanted, with control of the ball and to make England defend. I'm proud of what we did, we didn't deserve to lose but we're going to keep going on."
Technical observers at EURO 2024
