World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why England lost to Belgium

Modified Jul 17, 2018 19:38 GMT

Belgium v England: 3rd Place Playoff - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia — England finish their World Cup journey as the fourth best team

#2 England started playing football far too late

Belgium v England - FIFA World Cup 2018 - Third Place Play Off - St Petersburg Stadium — Eric Dier's brilliant effort was cleared off the line by Toby Alderweireld

The Englishmen struggled to create anything of note for the first hour of the game with Harry Kane's scuffed effort being their only notable creative moment. But with the introduction of the mobile Lingard and the electric Marcus Rashford, England looked more threatening than they did for the majority of the game.

For all the goals he has scored in this World Cup, Harry Kane hasn't really lived up to the hype. Don't pelt me. Just look at the goals he scored. Today, he looked off his game once again. He looked hesitant to make those decisive runs into the danger areas when the wingers were trying to whip in crosses from either side.

Once they started playing good attacking football, it was too late and as a result, England had to commit more bodies forward and this ultimately led to Hazard scoring in the 80th minute.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram