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England finished third in the inaugural Nations League final after a 2-0 defeat to the world\u2019s top-ranked side in Leuven means they cannot make the second edition next year.<\/p>\nEngland finished third in the inaugural Nations League final after a 2-0 defeat to the world\u2019s top-ranked side in Leuven means they cannot make the second edition next year.<\/p>\n
Youri Tielemans\u2019 deflected strike and a fine Dries Mertens free-kick saw Belgium run out 2-0 winners at Den Dreef, where Roberto Martinez\u2019s men had to dig deep as England applied constant pressure in the second half.<\/p>\n
But the visitors lacked the required cutting edge to secure a victory from a game that Southgate felt his side performed better in than last month\u2019s 2-1 win against the same opposition at Wembley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always disappointed to lose and to lose tonight puts us out of this competition,\u201d the England manager said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve got to balance that because I have to focus on performances. If you get performances right, then you will normally win matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days that won\u2019t happen for you. I think today we were better than we were at Wembley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe created more opportunities, we had more of the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think two moments in the game \u2013 a deflection for the first goal and the second goal I don\u2019t think is a free-kick \u2013 were the turning points.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that they had a couple of counter attacks \u2013 that is inevitable when you\u2019re pushing and pushing as we were.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m so impressed with the performance of the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot about a lot of players \u2013 not only their ability but their mentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were several players in the very early stages in their international careers who were excellent.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack is the obvious one. His performance was outstanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also thought Bukayo (Saka) as well coming into a game like that as a very young player against an experienced player like (Thomas) Meunier had an excellent game on the left when he came into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyrone (Mings) as well. That\u2019s a level up from the games he\u2019s been in with us before.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut also some other experienced players who played very well, so I take a lot of positives from it, although of course we don\u2019t want to lose football matches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s defeat means that qualification from Group A2 is beyond England heading into Wednesday\u2019s Wembley encounter with relegated Iceland.<\/p>\n
Grealish may well be rested for that match having starred from the outset against the Republic of Ireland and Belgium, but the Aston Villa playmaker must have surely sealed his spot at next summer\u2019s European Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, firstly as a person, since he\u2019s come into the camp he\u2019s impressed us with his approach,\u201d Southgate said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been curious to find out what we\u2019re looking for from him. He\u2019s taken that on board with these performances and in training.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe transferred his club performances into international football tonight against a top-level opponent, so we couldn\u2019t have been happier with what he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should be really proud of his performance and, yeah, as I say, I think he really stood up against as tough an opposition as you\u2019re going to face.\u201d<\/p>\n