Aleksandar Mitrovic hailed Jude Bellingham as the best player in the world after his stunning performance in England’s 1-0 win over Serbia on Sunday night.
Gareth Southgate’s side laboured to a narrow victory in Gelsenkirchen in their opening Euro 2024 fixture and they were indebted to the talents of the Real Madrid star, who scored the only goal after 13 minutes.
Mitrovic, who now plays his club football in Saudi Arabia with Al Hilal after leaving Fulham last summer, praised England’s all-round quality but reserved special commendation for the 20-year-old midfielder.
‘[Jude] Bellingham is the player that everybody is talking about and today he showed why.’ The ex-Premier League star told ITV post-match. ‘He’s one of the best players, if not the best player in the world at the moment.
‘But then around him there’s a lot of quality with Harry Kane, Declan Rice, John Stones Kyle Walker. Plus on the bench there are a lot of players who can change the game.
‘As I said, congrats to them but we focus on ourselves, we have two big games so we’ll try to recover and be ready for that.’
After being blown away by England’s superb start, Dragan Stojkovic’s side recovered well and set up a nervy conclusion for all rooting for the Three Lions.
Serbia tested Jordan Pickford with a couple of efforts late on and the Everton stopper was forced into a brilliant save from Dusan Vlahovic’s long range effort.
Despite the win and clean sheet – their fifth on the bounce in Euros group stages matches – England’s stars have come in for criticism from pundits domestic and overseas.
John Stones was slapped with a 3/10 rating by infamously harsh French sports newspaper L’Equipe for his performance.
They felt he struggled in his battle with striker Vlahovic from the first minute and ‘multiplied his blunders’ throughout the game.
L’Equipe noted that his knock against Iceland and his subsequent illness were factors in him being ‘not in the best form’.
They also handed Harry Kane a 5/10 for his subdued performance up top.
Joining him on that uninspiring rating were Phil Foden, Marc Guehi, and Kieran Trippier, while Jordan Pickford and Kyle Walker only got a 6/10 despite ensuring their goal was not breached.
L’Equipe liked what they saw from Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, lauding ‘the quality of his set pieces, his precise crosses for the left side, and the precision of his passes’.
The Parisian paper liked Saka’s assist and how he ‘carried out a series of astonishing dribbles along his line’ and praised his support for Walker, though they noted that his influence faded in the second half.
England moved to the top of Group C with the victory after Denmark had drawn with Slovenia earlier in the day. Southgate’s side face the Danes in their next fixture on Thursday.
