Jude Bellingham ‘writes his own script’ as he lifts England to opening win

Gareth Southgate said star midfielder Jude Bellingham “writes his own script” after helping England make a winning start to Euro 2024 against Serbia.

The 20-year-old scored a brilliant header inside 13 minutes of their Group C opener as the road to Berlin got off to a dream start at a rocking Veltins Arena.

But what could have been a statement victory instead turned into a slog against physical Serbia, who pushed England hard but could not find a leveller as Sunday’s clash ended 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen.

“Look, this team is still coming together,” manager Southgate said. “Everybody is expecting us to waltz through but there is a lot of hard work ahead.

“We’re short of certain things, we’re finding best possible solutions.

“We’ve had a very complicated run-in to all of this, but the spirit of the group was there for everybody to see tonight and we’ll definitely grow from that.”

Bellingham epitomised the spirit and skill England will need to go deep in the tournament, with Southgate full of praise for the matchwinner.

“He writes his own script,” he told the BBC. “The timing of his runs. It was a super bit of play in the build-up of his play. I think all of our forward players looked really good.

“I am confident we will score goals. Playing against a back five, it is not easy to create chances and we did.

“I liked the fact we had to suffer without the ball because that is an area we have worked on a lot this week. We were obviously much better than last week at doing that.”

Bellingham was the standout performer on a night when Southgate went for converted right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold as part of his midfield three along with Declan Rice.

“I was really pleased,” he said. “Of course, Jude has such a prominent role, but he