England vs Belgium result: Player ratings as Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount seal Nations League win

Southgate’s side come from behind to move top of Nations League group

Michael Jones
Sunday 11 October 2020 19:14 BST
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Rashford and Henderson celebrate
Rashford and Henderson celebrate

England produced an improved second-half showing to edge out Belgium at Wembley.

The away side were the more dominant in the first half and, after seeing an early strike ruled out, took the lead through a Romelu Lukaku penalty.

But Marcus Rashford replied with a spot-kick of his own for England, before Mason Mount’s deflected effort looped into the net to send Gareth Southgate’s team to victory.

The win lifts England above Belgium in the Nations League group, with seven points from three games.

Here are the player ratings for the game at Wembley.

England

Jordan Pickford: 6 out of 10 – Didn’t really make a case to confirm his status as England’s number one. Made a couple of easy saves but showed signs of his fallibility.

Kyle Walker: 7 out of 10 – Impressive on his 50th appearance for England. Looked the most competent of England’s back three and was a commanding presence at the back.

Harry Maguire: 6 out of 10 – Regulation game for Man Utd’s captain. Still needs to regain some confidence but he’ll benefit from a decent display.

Eric Dier: 5 out of 10 – Got outclassed by Romelu Lukaku who ran rings around him. Still not convincing as a centre-back and made a poor decision going to ground when conceding the penalty.

Trent Alexander-Arnold: 6 out of 10 – Struggled to defend against the combined threat of Castagne and Carrasco but made up for it going forward.

Jordan Henderson: 7 out of 10 – A solid performer in England’s midfield despite not playing for a while. Won the penalty and sent his fair share of crosses into the box.

Declan Rice: 6 out of 10 – Grew into the game after a quiet first half, threw himself around the midfield and did his part in keeping Lukaku quite in the second half.

Kieran Trippier: 6 out of 10 – Struggled over on the left and preferred to cut inside at any opportunity, became predictable after a while but points for perseverance.

Mason Mount: 8 out of 10 – Spent a lot of time waiting for the ball out on the wide right but had more success with playing through the middle, turning up at the right time to score England’s second goal.

Marcus Rashford: 8 out of 10 – One of England’s bright sparks in the first half with a couple of threatening runs into the box before converting the penalty with confidence.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 6 out of 10 – Didn’t see enough of the ball in the hour or so he was on the pitch. Attacked anything that came his way in the air and combined well enough with Rashford.

Belgium

Simon Mignolet: 6 out of 10 – Could do nothing about either of England’s goals and wasn’t asked to do much outside of them.

Thomas Meunier: 5 out of 10 – Was threatening going forward on the overlap but gave away the penalty in the first half that turned the game for England.

Toby Alderweireld: 6 out of 10 – Got an unfortunate deflection on Mason Mount’s shot that gave England a second goal. Ruined a quietly solid performance from him.

Jason Denayer: 6 out of 10 – Solid if not spectacular at the back for Belgium. Handled set pieces and crosses well.

Dedryck Boyata: 6 out of 10 – Was found out of position on a couple of occasions to let Rashford in behind the lines but had a decent game nonetheless.

Timothy Castagne: 7 out of 10 – Linked up well with Carrasco and ran into the box on any opportunity, worked hard all game.

Axel Witsel: 5 out of 10 – Looked low on confidence preferring simple passes around the edge of the box. Just sort of faded into the background.

Youri Tielemans: 7 out of 10 – Hard to make an impact with Kevin De Bruyne as a teammate but Tielemans held his own. Played slightly deeper and had to do more defending but played some lovely passes into the front men.

Kevin De Bruyne: 7 out of 10 – Quiet by his usual high standards but still made an impact when on the ball, Belgium felt his absence when he went off with 15 minutes to go.

Romelu Lukaku: 8 out of 10 – Belgium’s best player on the pitch. Held the ball up well, won his battle against Dier, earned a penalty and converted it.

Yannick Carrasco: 6 out of 10 – Started well scoring a goal that was ruled out but failed to re-capture his early momentum and sent some shots wide of the mark.

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