England drew 2:2 with Belgium in another friendly for the upcoming Euro 2024 in Germany in the summer.
At Wembley, the visitors opened through Youri Tielemans, who capitalized on a mistake by Three Lions goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Soon after, however, Jude Bellingham played a pass into the lane for Ivan Toney, who was fouled in the box by Jan Vertonghen and the referee pointed to the spot. Toney himself shouldered the responsibility and made no mistake for 1:1. VAR intervened in the 27th minute to cancel out Jarrod Bowen's strike before Tielemans scored for the second time, this time with a header, following Romelu Lukaku's superb cross. The Belgians were heading to victory when Bellingham scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time from substitute James Maddison's pass.
Thus, coach Gareth Southgate's men avoided another defeat in the friendlies, after recently losing to Brazil 0:1. Belgium drew a second time after 0:0 with the Republic of Ireland.
In another friendly, European Championship hosts Germany pulled off a complete turnaround against the Netherlands.
In Frankfurt, Joey Veerman put the Tulips ahead before Julian Nagelsmann's side secured a second consecutive win with goals from Maximilian Mittelstedt and substitute Niklas Fühlkrug. The Dutch failed to follow up their convincing 4:0 win over Scotland with another positive result.
One of the Euro 2024 favorites France, who lost to Germany last week, avenged the negative result against the Bundesteam by winning against Chile 3:2. Youssouf Fofana, Randal Kolo Mouani and Olivier Giroud were accurate for the winners.
Portugal suffered a surprising 0:2 defeat by Slovenia, while world champions Argentina, again without their big star Lionel Messi, beat Costa Rica 3:1. Angel Di Maria, Alexis Mac Allister and Lautaro Martinez scored for the Albiceleste. /BGNES
