England boost World Cup hopes with smooth victory

The man Thomas Tuchel had omitted in October came on, for his international comeback, to make a point and in some style. Not Jude Bellingham.

- RICHARD JOLLY

England 2
Saka (28), Eze (90)

Serbia 0

Or not just Bellingham, anyway. In a 2-0 victory that could be attributed to Tuchel, his words leading to the opener, his deeds to the clincher, Phil Foden may have provided Tuchel with an answer to the conundrum of the surfeit of No 10s. Eberechi Eze, too.

They could not all go to the World Cup, Tuchel had suggested. But if Foden had looked potentially vulnerable, the man who could be squeezed out, a player used on the left in Euro 2024 had a new guise: as Harry Kane’s understudy. Foden was used in attack, winning his first cap since March. Eze was introduced on the left wing, scored and thrust himself into a different debate. In a quadruple change, Bellingham was brought on in his preferred position and looked an upgrade on the starter Morgan Rogers. But that may not have been the revelation of the night. Foden, arguably, was. “Phil can make any team better in an offensive position,” said Tuchel.

“The smile is back,” Foden added. “I was happy to come on as a false nine kind of thing. Maybe that will get the best out of me.”