Nations League: Belgium dash England’s UEFA Nations League hopes
Two first-half goals were enough for Belgium to end England’s hopes of qualifying for the Nations League finals in their Group A2 encounter on Sunday in Leuven.
The defeat means England will not reach the finals after finishing third in 2019 when the inaugural showpiece was held in Portugal.
Leicester City’s Youri Tielemans opened the scoring after 10 minutes when his 20-yard shot took a deflection of Tyrone Mings and Dries Mertens doubled their advantage 13 minutes later with a superb free-kick after Declan Rice was harshly adjudged to have fouled Kevin de Bruyne.
England spent much of the second half in their opponents’ half, they were unable to fashion the opportunities to work their way back into contention.
England host Iceland in their final Nations League match on Wednesday
In the other match in group A2, Christian Eriksen scored twice to give Denmark a 2-1 victory over Iceland.
