Jude Bellingham's Decisive Goal Clinches England's Win Over Serbia

Gareth Southgate praised Jude Bellingham for his decisive performance as England secured a 1-0 victory over Serbia. The Real Madrid midfielder scored in Gelsenkirchen, increasing his international tally to four goals. Bellingham became the second player to score at both the World Cup and Euros before turning 21.

Bellingham's perfectly timed run into the penalty area allowed him to head Bukayo Saka's cross past Predrag Rajkovic. Southgate commented to BBC Sport, "He writes his own scripts, doesn't he? The timing of his runs was superb, and our forward players looked dangerous at different moments."

According to OptaJoe, Bellingham is the first player to score for England at both the World Cup and European Championship while playing club football outside of England. Southgate has now won the opening match in all four major tournaments he has managed for England, with only Alf Ramsey having a better win rate in international competitions.

England dominated the first half but had to work hard for their victory against a revitalised Serbia side in the second half. Southgate believes this experience will benefit the team ahead of their match against Denmark on Thursday. "That's the reality of tournaments," Southgate said. "They are a strong team, and we had to suffer a bit, which is good for us."

England had opportunities to extend their lead but were limited to five shots throughout the contest. Harry Kane came closest in the second half when his header was tipped onto the crossbar by Rajkovic. Southgate acknowledged Serbia's compact defence but expressed confidence in his team's attacking potential.

"Today was just about finishing and a good save from their goalkeeper," Southgate added. "I am confident that we will score goals. We played against a back five, which is not easy to create chances against, but we did, and one was enough."

Southgate also highlighted the importance of defending without the ball, an area they have focused on recently. "We had to suffer a bit without the ball, which is something we've worked on a lot this week," he said. "We were much better than last week in that aspect."