England 2 Serbia 0: Sub Jude Bellingham and friends lift subdued Three Lions to make their point

After weeks of talk about Jude Bellingham's place in the England squad, the Real Madrid man was finally able to show what all the fuss was about, adding some electricity to a damp night at Wembley when England were all too flat.

Coach Thomas Tuchel made Bellingham wait until the 65th minute before letting him off the leash to show what England had been missing whilst Morgan Rogers took advantage of his shoulder injury. Phil Foden, Eberechi Eze and Jordan Henderson came on with him.

The message to Bellingham and Foden when the team-sheets came out was blunt: for now at least Bellingham is former Middlesbrough player Rogers understudy and Foden has the unenviable task of being Harry Kane's deputy.

But both did a good job of stating their cases, along with Eze, who hit the crossbar and scored a goal in his run-out on the left wing.

Bellingham tended to arrive from deeper than a disappointing Rogers but he ran into the hole to good effect, energising a flat performance.

His first contribution of note was an almost balletic turn and pass into Foden, who circulated the ball via Eze to Elliot Anderson for a blocked shot.

He seemed to lift others too, Reece James backheeling a one-two with him.

It improved a drab match at a rainy Wembley and eventually got England over the line, but only just, claiming a 2-0 win.

It had been a competitive game with a very friendly-match feel with far more fireworks before kick-off certainly than in the first hour's football that followed. The hum around the ground during the low-key early stages gave it away. England had already qualified for next summer's World Cup and although Serbia needed the points, the "where d'you park your mini bus" away following caused by their FA's refusal to sell tickets only added to the flat feel. The paper aeroplanes took off quite early.

Enzri Konsa played a sloppy pass out wide early on, Reece James gave the ball away trying to force it through the middle and a Jordan Pickford pass put Anderson into unnecessary bother.

England were trying to get around the visitors' very solid formation with big switches to their wide players but Anderson had a shot blocked when Marcus Rashford played Bukayo's Saka pass back to him.

Saka tried a trademark shot when Kane dropped off the front and swept the ball out to him, but his shot high.

It was so mundane that midway through the first half Pickford appeared to engineer a time-out, going down with a thigh injuries having not been in the action for a long time, and recovering from it after a couple of minutes of treatment.

Maybe it did some good because Declan Rice was soon playing Rashford in for a shot at Predrag Rajkovic, and Saka had a shot blocked after coming inside.

The opening goal came in the 28th minute, Nico O'Reilly, the debutant in a strong side, having a shot blocked when Rice's free-kick was punched out to him. Saka calmly guided the ball in on the volley.

For all Rashford's confidence after some great form with Barcelona, nutmegging one defender at the byline only for another to come across, the second goal would not come.

Deflections caused Rajkovic more problems than clean shots, O'Reilly's ricocheting cross forcing a low save, and James' deflecting cross forcing flutters either side of Kane heading into the ground and wide at a corner.

Rashford continued to play with confidence biut not end product, having a shot blocked when he came inside early in the second half, then slipping as he put an effort from an optimistic distance wide.

But England could not pull away, to the extent that Kane had to come all the way back to the edge of his penalty area to put in a slide tackle.

And even the quadruple substitution which quickly followed could not secure the victory until the 90th minute.

Konsa headed with at a corner and Foden glanced a Henderson cross that seemed to take him by surprise the wrong side of the near post. Bellingham ballooned a shot.

Lazar Zamardzic came close to emulating Saka's volley in the 81st minute. He was in an offside position but Duslan Valhovic's backheeled flick just before the mass substitution or his self-created volley just over the top would have stood if they had just been a few inches better placed.

As it was, Eze hit the crossbar after a lovely dinked pass from Foden, then swept another pass from the Manchester City man into the net.

The substitutes had made their point. Tuchel will relish the problems that gives him.

England: Pickford; James, Konsa, Stones, O'Reilly; Anderson (Wharton 85), Rice (J Henderson 65); Saka, Rogers (Bellingham 65), Rashford (Eze 65); Kane (Foden 65).

Unused substitutes: Chalobah, Burn, D Henderson, Spence, Bowen, Trafford, Quansah.

Serbia: Rajkovic; Mimovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovi , Terzic (Radonjic 77); Zivkovic (Jovic 77), Gudelj (Samardzic 69), Lukic (Grujic 77), Kostic;; I Ilic (Stankovic 39); Vlahovic.

Unused substitutes: Katai, V Ilic, Veljkovic, Milosavljevic, Erakovic, L Ilic, Petrovic.

Referee: I Kruzliak