Jude Bellingham admits that England weren’t at their usual level in draw with Ukraine but stresses importance of moving a point closer to qualifying for Euro 2024
- Jude Bellingham has admitted England were not at their best against Ukraine
- Gareth Southgate’s side were held to a 1-1 draw in their latest Euro 2024 qualifier
- Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off’
Jude Bellingham has admitted that England weren’t at their usual level in their 1-1 draw against Ukraine on Saturday.
Gareth Southgate’s side saw their 100 per cent start to Euro 2024 qualification come to an end in Poland.
Bellingham did, however, outline the importance of England moving a step closer to qualifying for next year’s tournament in Germany.
Bellingham wrote on his Instagram story: ‘Not at our level but a point closer to Germany’.
Oleksandr Zinchenko gave Ukraine the lead in the 26th minute, with Kyle Walker scoring the equaliser for England just prior to half time with his first international goal.
Jude Bellingham has admitted England weren’t at their best in their draw against Ukraine
Gareth Southgate’s side lacked flair as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine in Poland
Your browser does not support iframes.
Even though they drew against Ukraine, England are six points clear of their opponents at the top of qualifying Group C, albeit having played a game more.
As Bellingham alluded to, England certainly weren’t at their best against Ukraine, with Gareth Southgate admitting that his side weren’t dangerous enough in attack.
Southgate said: ‘Clearly, most of our attacking play wasn’t at the level that we would have hoped it to be. I think by the time we scored the goal we’d had over 70 per cent of the ball but that was our first attempt on target.
‘We turned over [lost] too many balls that we wouldn’t normally. I wouldn’t expect that to happen again.
‘We know that the patterns that we worked during the week are what we always do, so it’s not that we approach the game in a different way.
‘We tried to refresh things to give them a different sort of problem but today our forward play, bar the goal and Bukayo Saka’s effort that hit the bar, wasn’t at the level that it has been in our previous games.’
Bellingham has enjoyed a superb start to the season in front of goal at his new club Real Madrid, scoring five goals in just four league games.
Bellingham started and played 65 minutes against Ukraine before being substituted
At the age of 20 he is already establishing himself as an important player for England and has 25 caps.
England are back in action on Tuesday when they face Scotland away in a friendly.
IT’S ALL KICKING OFF!
It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.
It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Source: Read Full Article