Thomas Tuchel has challenged his England players to “prove a point” against Serbia next week after labouring to victory over Andorra.
England ran out 2-0 winners against Andorra on Saturday at Villa Park after an own-goal from Christian Garcia and a header from Declan Rice.
Tuchel’s side dominated much of the possession - and Andorra failed to have a shot on target - but the Three Lions struggled to create many chances.
The victory, however, keeps England top of their World Cup qualifying group and Tuchel wants his side to make a statement in Serbia next week.
Serbia are currently second in Group K and are England’s biggest rivals in the fight for first place.
“We’ve learned a lot and I’m glad for the players,” said Tuchel. “Now we will prove a point in Belgrade.
“We will try to prove a point, to win and put out the next performance, and to be tough in the circumstances.
“We expect a very emotional stadium. We expect an emotional crowd. We expect, maybe, to [have to] adapt to the circumstances.
“We don’t know what the pitch looks like. We make no excuses. And then we come up against a very physical team, they will, I think attack us in a man-man situation. This is what we will see until now.
“It will be very physical. They have highly quality up front, international, top quality up front. They play very direct and we have to step up to this, and adapt to the circumstances, adapt to the opponent.
“And then prove the point we are a strong group and on the right way, because I feel like we had an excellent five days now.
“It is on us now. We have two days to prepare for Tuesday - and hopefully prove the point there that we are ready for that.
“Accept the physicality, overcome the adversity, and get another win.”
We will try to prove a point, to win and put out the next performance, and to be tough in the circumstances
England’s win over Andorra followed the pattern of many of their other World Cup qualifiers, so far.
They dominated possession and, once again kept a clean sheet, but the goals did not follow.
“I expect another game with a lot of possession for us in Belgrade,” said Tuchel. “A very different style of game but the same deep, low block.
“I expect us to have, again, a lot of possession. It is then about where to speed up the game and, maybe, focus on the details.
“Today we attacked with wider full-backs, with Reecey (Reece James) and Myles [Lewis-Skelly] a bit wider. Reecey was involved in the goals and chances, so we need to focus on that.
“We just can’t play the opponents that is there. We are the favourites in this qualification group, we accept it.
“We want to win the group, we demand it from ourselves. This is the way forward.”
