England beat Serbia 2-0 at Wembley to keep their 100 per cent record in World Cup qualifying intact.
On came the likes of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Eberechi Eze as England produced a strong finish, with Foden assisting Eze’s marvellous late goal in England’s first of two dead-rubber qualifiers this week.
A much-changed Serbia team playing their first match under new head coach Veljko Paunovic certainly made them work for it, but the hosts deserved all three points.
Bellingham and Foden impress on return
So much of the talk surrounding this England squad has centred on the returns of Bellingham and Foden after Tuchel contentiously chose to keep last month’s group largely the same as September.
While the head coach showed faith with his autumn stars and started Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers at No10, both did appear off the bench and were bright and effective.
Bellingham played one outstanding long pass into the feet of Eze, and late in the game had a nice marauding run forward in which he played in Eze, who so nearly doubled England’s lead.
Tuchel chose not to select another No9 besides Harry Kane this month and was always planning to try Foden in the false nine position.
Foden functioned well there, twisting and turning out of trouble and even coming close to scoring his fifth England goal as his header from a Jordan Henderson cross flashed just wide. Tuchel should repeat the experiment against Albania on Sunday.
Foden’s powerful running after a through ball from Bellingham was critical to England’s second goal, with the Manchester City man driving forward purposefully and then setting up Eze’s stunner.
Guess who’s back: Jude Bellingham made his England return off the bench against Serbia
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Saka proves star of the show
There is something about Saka playing for England at Wembley that just seems to click. He seems to be at his most threatening for his country when playing at home.
So it proved again, as the Arsenal winger scored at Wembley for the second game in a row.
Last month he scored a stunning, curled effort when cutting on to his left foot against Wales — a goal almost identical to the one he netted against Ukraine in 2023.
Against Serbia, this time his finish was a side-foot volley, guided into the far-left corner at a time in the game when quality in the final third had been in considerably short supply.
His celebration was a knee slide with his arms out, the 24-year-old fully aware that he had scored a sensational goal and now surely is ahead of Arsenal team-mate Noni Madueke in Tuchel’s thinking on the right wing.
A noticeable theme of England’s performance was the number of times they decided to go long.
Serbia held a robust shape and kept their hosts at bay for long periods. When England were in need of speeding up the tempo and forcing the issue, it was often the favoured play of debutant left-back Nico O’Reilly and particularly Chelsea captain Reece James to pick out long switches from one flank to the other.
England did not get every one right and did occasionally overhit their passes, but for the most part it was an effective tool to break into the final third and clearly a tactical move from Tuchel.
It will be interesting to see how much England choose to play long from one wing to the other when they face Albania in Tirana in their final qualifier on Sunday. The variety shown in their attacks against Serbia certainly boded well.
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