After their Nations League relegation last Friday, England and manager Gariff Southgate

had 90 minutes to convince us they weren't sleepwalking towards World Cup humiliation.

It's collected now by Bukai Osaka.

It's brilliant player!

Tutu!

What a finish!

Makes it now for England! Yeah, Tuto! What a finish! Mason Man for England!

Yeah, they squeezed all the excitement into about 12 minutes in the end, didn't they?

But the draw against Germany brought goals at last,

but maybe as many questions as answers.

England correspondent Jack Pitt Brooke and senior writer,

Olli Kay, are on hand to answer those questions.

I'm Ian Irving and this is the Athletic Football Podcast.

So much to dissect then, including Harry McGuire's night of course, but let's start with something a little bit more positive. Jude Bellingham has surely cemented his place for the World Cup Jack, hasn't he? I think he cemented his place in the team. Probably the best thing about this break for England, these two games. He hadn't really played well for England in a big game before then. I thought he had some good moments in Milan on Friday, and then I thought he was fantastic last night. The way he takes the ball under pressure, moves it forward, you know, kept England on the front for a second half. Really, really good performance. Ollie? Totally agree. He's been in the squad for a while, and he's done well, and everybody can see the talent that he has, and everybody's excited by him. It wasn't always easy to see where he was going to fit in, how he was going to fit in as a regular starter or as a starter initially at the World Cup, but I think we all saw it last night. I've had it in my mind that he would be better suited to a 4-33 or a three-man central midfield, but he made that work last night alongside Declan Rice. I thought they both got through an awful lot of work,

were good off the ball for most of the game. And as Jack said, he brings real quality in possession.

And there was a period in the game where Germany were totally dominating possession. But I think for the most part, I'd say Bellingham gave Germany a lot to think about. And yeah, to me, he has definitely played his way into the starting lineup. And I'm relieved he's done that because, I'm relieved he's had the chance to do that because others haven't. No, that's true. And it feels like that midfield pairing of rice and Bellingham is a headache that Gareth Southgate doesn't need to worry about. He's got plenty else on his plate, certainly. We'll get into your piece, Ollie, in a little while about this international break for Gariff Southgate, where it leaves him and everything else aside. But just to continue the positives for a moment, Jack, the substitutions work, didn't they? And that's encouraging going into a major tournament, because England are going to need the squad, aren't they? It's not just about the first 11.

Yes, and this is something that Southgate's been criticised a lot about over the last few years has been that he's unable to change the course of the game by using substitutions well.

But I thought yesterday, the addition of Saka and Mount changed the game really. You know,

it was Saka, it was Saka's run and Mounce finish that provided that goal for England, which

made it two all. And they, you know, they both obviously raised the level of the team. I think

it's particularly important because Saka, if he sticks to three, four, three, Saka, Mount and Foden,

I think are basically competing for one place, which is on the right of the front three. And the fact that Saka and Mount both played so well shows that, you know, Fodon's under pressure, which I think is really a good thing, because, you know, it's competition of places in a good way. Yeah, absolutely, right. They're the sort of small amount of positives. There are a few more, of course, for England after this international break. There is so much to get our teeth into, though, in terms of the criticism and some of the negativity around the national team at the moment. Was it really only 14 months ago that there was positive energy, Olli, you've written in your piece, amongst other things, of course. The mood around the team has changed so much. The draw last night, the comeback of sorts helped, but then obviously the error then from Nick Pope to give Germany the equaliser, just undid even that a little bit. It just feels like it's not quite going right at the moment. Yeah, if you look at the results since the Euro's, it's been a bit up and down. I mean, there was that 10-0, wasn't there in the qualifiers, there's been some big wins. But I think the Nations League games have been a bit of a reality check. With it, it's been three draws and three defeats, that is in no way good. They've finished bottom of the group. They're relegated to the second tier of the Nations League. It's been disappointing. But I think normally in this situation,

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