Gareth Southgate was pleased his England team found the right answers to the questions posed by Belgium, as goals from Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount earned a 2-1 win at Wembley.
The manager praised both the goalscorers, along with left wing-back Kieran Trippier, as keys to solving the problems of a tough first half thanks to their movement on and off the ball.
“Rashford and Mount were phenomenal with their performances. You can’t just play with the ball. We can be free-scoring but against the very best the detail of how you defend as a team has got to be absolutely bang-on,” Southgate told ITV Sport.
“We were getting caught on transitions, Belgium were to play directly into [Lukaku] and we should have been positionally better on those transitions.
“Trippier was like a soldier out there, unbelievable defensive performance.”
Southgate further acknowledged that a single result won’t mean any chance of thinking the hard work is done, particularly given the way his side were dominated in the first half.
The manager instead wants to focus on continual improvement and finding consistency in their results, starting with the next Nations League fixture on Wednesday.
"We’ve got loads we can get better at. We’re not carried away by this win, we’ve got to back it up against Denmark first and foremost.
“To come through those games on a top side and to know they were challenged defensively, they are games of concentration and games of detail. For our guys to come through that was a big moment for them.”
England have lost three of their 20 matches played since Belgium won the third-place play-off clash at Russia 2018.
