Despite preserving a clean sheet against Serbia, French publication L’Equipe oddly gave England defender John Stones a 3/10 rating.
Stones, 30, made sure that England began their Euro 2024 campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 victory by helping the Three Lions withstand a second-half Serbian attack.
England player ratings according to L’Erique
L’Equipe, known for their harsh player evaluation system, gave Bellingham a 7/10, while Stones was handed a shocking 3/10 rating. Despite managing to contain Aleksandar Mitrovic and company at Gelsenkirchen, the Manchester City center back got by far the lowest rating in the England XI.
Similar to left-back Kieran Trippier, center-back partner Marc Guehi, who was playing in his first European Championship, received a 5/10, while right-back Kyle Walker and other players, including goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, midfielders Declan Rice and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and winger Bukayo Saka, all had a 6/10.
Elsewhere, forwards Harry Kane and Phil Foden, had scores of 5/10.
England manager Gareth Southgate acknowledges that after dominating the opening forty-five minutes, his team was made to “struggle” in the second half.
“Serbia are a strong team,” Southgate said, as per The Mirror.
He continued, “We had to suffer a bit, which I think is really good for us to come through and to defend our box in the way we did under pressure is important for the group. That’s the reality of tournaments.
“We had good chances to extend the lead and kill the game, which we didn’t manage to take. I was really pleased with a lot of the play, especially the first half. I thought we used the ball really well. Second half we didn’t keep it quite as well as we need to but to get the win and the start that we have is really important.”
