England Predicted XI: We predict Gareth Southgate’s starting line-up as England go up against top side Belgium in the UEFA Nations League

England Predicted XI: We predict Gareth Southgate’s starting line-up as England go up against top side Belgium in the UEFA Nations League.

The 5:00pm kick-off would definitely be seen as the ‘game of the day’ by most neutral football fans, with the match set to be a mouth-watering encounter.

England are coming off the back of a good 3-0 win at home to Wales where a lot of new faces performed well, which will have given Southgate a selection headache, but a nice problem to have.

Belgium are England’s toughest opponents in Group A2, having already played Iceland and Denmark in previous matches. England sit on four points, Belgium sit on six points with a 100% record.

Southgate will be hoping to leapfrog Belgium in the group, who as it stands, are the number one rated team in the world and have plenty of attacking talent to choose from.

Here we predict Southgate’s XI…

Goalkeeper:

Pickford: Despite Nick Pope’s solid performance and clean sheet against Wales mid week, Jordan Pickford is expected to come back into the side as England’s number one. Southgate has great trust in the Everton goalkeeper, and often overlooks the shot-stopper’s shaky performances in the Premier League.

Defenders:

Changes will also be expected at the heart of the defence, with a number of players coming in following the Wales game. Goalscorer Conor Coady and Michael Keane played 90 minutes on Thursday and are likely to come out of the side for Eric Dier and Harry Maguire. Joe Gomez played an hour against Ryan Giggs’ Wales and should start tonight’s game. Kieran Trippier will play again, but this time on the left-hand side leaving Premier League winner Trent Alexander-Arnold to take his place in the starting XI.

Midfielders:

Further changes are expected in the middle of the park with both of Thursday’s starters dropping out the side. Kalvin Philipps played the whole 90 minutes against Wales and will not be starting tonight, whilst Harry Winks will also be replaced. The experienced Jordan Henderson will come in to the middle, and in-form Declan Rice will join him with the duo’s main aim to break up attacks from the talented Belgium side.

Forwards:

This is the area of the pitch where Southgate has the most difficult decisions to make. Dominic Calvert-Lewin played exceptionally well against Wales and scored on his debut, but Harry Kane is simply undroppable at the spear of the attack. However, we believe Jack Grealish will keep his place in the side, with Marcus Rashford MBE, providing every goalscoring threat.

Predicted XI: Pickford, Trippier, Gomez, Dier, Maguire, Alexander-Arnold, Henderson, Rice, Grealish, Rashford, Kane