England secure comfortable victory over Serbia as Bellingham limited to brief appearance

Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze kept Englands perfect away form intact heading into the World Cup although Jude Bellingham could only feature briefly during Thursdays 2-0 victory versus Serbia.

Saka opened the scoring in the opening period at Wembley with his Arsenal colleague Eze adding a late goal to confirm Englands seventh straight Group K success without letting in any goals having already booked their spot at the tournament.

Following a run where they netted 13 goals across their prior three outings this performance was far more straightforward for England and Thomas Tuchels choice to bench Bellingham drew the bulk of the focus.

The coach preferred Aston Villa playmaker Morgan Rogers ahead of Bellingham opting to introduce the Real Madrid talent with just 26 minutes remaining.

Bellingham sat out Englands last four fixtures after a shoulder problem kept him away in September and Tuchel excluded him again in October.

Rogers shone as the number 10 covering for Bellingham in the triumphs against Wales and Latvia back in October.

Tuchel recently cautioned Bellingham that earning a starting spot for the World Cup would require competition.

Speculation suggests Bellingham has occasionally divided opinions within the England group and Tuchel had to say sorry to the 22 year old earlier this term after admitting his mum viewed the passionate players field antics as off putting.

With England heading to Albania for their final qualifier on Sunday Tuchel faces just two warm up games in March prior to announcing his World Cup roster.

The way the German manages Bellingham is set to dominate discussions right up to the event in the United States Canada and Mexico come next year.

Englands 5-0 triumph in Serbia during September marked the initial indication that Tuchel was imprinting his style on the side after a tentative beginning to his tenure.

Saka shines

England have gained fresh energy since that strong result locking in their World Cup place with a dominant win over Latvia in October.

Tuchel has triumphed in eight of his nine games in charge encompassing seven qualifiers where not a single goal has been conceded.

He complained about the lacklustre vibe in Englands recent friendly against Wales and again the supporters seemed restrained during the teams initial outing at Wembley following his remarks.

Soon enough frustrated spectators began tossing paper planes onto the field.

However Tuchel had encouraged Saka to boost his scoring tally for England after a lean spell and the Arsenal attacker obliged on the 28th minute.

Serbia goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic cleared Declan Rices free kick towards Nico OReilly whose effort was stopped before rebounding to Saka who slotted a calm volley into the distant corner from a tight position.

Sakas 14th international goal in 47 caps energised his team and OReillys wayward cross hit the upright while Harry Kane nodded over from near the goal.

Rogers came close to making it two with a glancing header that sailed past the post right before the break.

Dusan Vlahovic ought to have made England pay for their wastefulness yet the forward scooped a back heel astray from point blank range soon after the restart.

In addition to deploying Bellingham Tuchel brought on Phil Foden who missed the prior three call ups to take over as central forward replacing Kane.

The trio of Bellingham Foden and replacement Eze linked up to seal the result in the 90th minute.

Bellingham picked out Foden and the Manchester City creator set up Eze for an excellent strike into the upper corner from just outside the box.