Belgium 2-0 England: Youri Tielemans and Dries Mertens goals end Three Lions’ hopes of qualifying for Nations League finals

England have failed to qualify for the Nations League finals after being beaten 2-0 by Belgium in Leuven.

The scoring was opened on 10 minutes by Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans, whose effort from 20 yards was deflected past a helpless Jordan Pickford. Thirteen minutes later, Dries Mertens buried a free-kick for the Red Devils after Declan Rice was adjudged to have fouled Kevin De Bruyne. Mertens’ effort saw him become the first person to score a free-kick for Belgium since De Bruyne did so in 2015.

England went closest to scoring through captain Harry Kane – who had a bullet header cleared off the line by Romelu Lukaku while trailing by a goal. 

Jack Grealish made his first competitive start for England on Sunday and he put in a fine performance that will make it hard for Gareth Southgate to leave him out of the starting line-up in future. The Aston Villa captain played with great attacking intent and was constantly looking to make things happen throughout, drawing plenty of fouls from a good Belgium side.

The Three Lions enjoyed the majority of the possession, but lacked pace going forward and as such were unable to undo a stubborn Belgium defence. 

There was also worrying news for Chelsea on the night as left back Ben Chilwell went off injured after 38 minutes and was replaced by Arsenal youngster Bukayo Saka.

Defeat in Leuven means that England can now not reach the finals of the Nations League. Southgate’s side finished third at the inaugural event in Portugal in 2019 – losing their semi-final to Holland in Guimaraes before Jordan Pickford was the penalty shootout hero against Switzerland in the third-place play off.

England now turn their attention to Wednesday’s game against Iceland – a dead rubber for both teams with the latter already relegated to one of the Group Bs after finishing bottom of Group A2.

Iceland will head to Wembley on the back of a defeat themselves having lost 2-1 to Denmark courtesy of two Christian Eriksen penalties in Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, Belgium host Denmark in a winner-takes-all clash for a Nations League finals spot.

By Dylan Chavasse