KEIR RADNEDGE at WEMBLEY: England manager Gareth Southgate is finished with experimentation before he must name his squad of 23 for the European Championship finals in Germany in June and July.

The Three Lions will be among the favourites but preparation was far from ideal with injuries in defence and attack rendering the latest friendly tests less than perfect.

England’s Wembley defeat by Brazil last Saturday was a creative disappointment and Belgium were denied only by a last-kick equaliser from Jude Bellingham. The 2-2 draw averted two successive defeats for England at Wembley since failures against Chile and Germany in November 2013.

England suffered a doubly disappointing start.

First John Stones injured an ankle and had to be substituted then Jordan Pickford hit a sloppy clearance to Amadou Onana who popped the ball on for Youri Tielemans to open the scoring with a low shot into the bottom corner.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola would have been cursing the international break. Kyle Walker had damaged a hamstring against Brazil and now Stones is also in question ahead of Sunday’s all-important Premier League resumption against Arsenal.

Fortunately England hit back almost immediately. Ivan Toney, on his full debut, was brought down by veteran Jan Vertonghen and stood up to convert the penalty.

England thought they had taken the lead minutes later when Jarrod Bowen nodded the ball home after a right-wing corner but the goal was ruled out for offside by VAR.

Belgium, instead, achieved the next breakthrough on the counter-attack with Tielemans producing a diving header after Romelu Lukaku had outmanoeuvred Lewis Dunk and delivered an inch-perfect right wing cross.

England, much sharper in attack than against Brazil, exerted all the early pressure in the second half. Toney had an angled drive well saved for a corner, Jude Bellingham headed badly wide of an open goal and the energetic Bowen was foiled by keeper Matz Sels.

England played some entertaining football but it was not until the fifth minute of stoppage time that Bellingham converted as assist from substitute James Maddison to secure a deserved draw.

Southgate will have end-of-season opportunities only against Bosnia in Newcastle and then Iceland at Wembley to tweak his strategy before flying to Germany.

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