Jude Bellingham hailed England’s ‘brilliant’ newcomers as they provided a shining light in an error-strewn 2-2 draw with Belgium at Wembley.
Kobbie Mainoo was England’s standout man on his full debut while Ivan Toney scored a penalty to advance his case to be Harry Kane’s understudy at Euro 2024.
Mistakes from Jordan Pickford and Lewis Dunk undid the Three Lions in the first half but Gareth Southgate’s men had their moments of quality.
John Stones had to withdraw with a first-half injury and he joins a mounting list of absentees, but Bellingham was positive with the new players stepping in.
He said: ‘I’m sure the manager’s glad with the players that you got to see because they came in and they were brilliant. So yeah, over the two games, I’m pleased with my teammates, of course, never happy to lose and draw but we’ve got to be pleased with how some of them played.
‘We trust everyone that comes into the squad. They’re all in the squad for a reason because they’re good players so we trust everyone that comes in.
‘Of course it’s hard for the gaffer. People need to realise how hard a job it is, you plan these games, the size of games because you expect to field a fully fit team and you expect to give it a really good crack and the skipper gets injured, Kane is obviously out, walker, Stones now so it’s a really difficult one for us.;
Bellingham scored a 95th-minute equaliser to give England a draw, salvaging some positivity after the disappointing 1-0 defeat against Brazil on Saturday night.
He added: ‘I liked it because I know the rubbish you would have got if we had lost two games on the bounce.
‘I think with these games you’ve got to have a good perspective in mind. There’s a lot of lads making debuts, a lot of those boys I’ve never played with before, and I thought we created a lot of chances.
‘I had the one there that I should score and a couple other shots at goal. I’m happy that I can make it onto the team but really we should be winning with all the chances we made myself, Phil [Foden], Kobbie [Mainoo], had some big ones so one of those things.
‘I think it’s two games that will stand us in great stead going into the Euros and I know everyone will be negative about it but you have to take these games for what they are and use the positives, learn from the negatives, and [a] draw [will] be fine.’
