THE ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING

Jude and Co misfire again in Germany

- ANDY DUNN

AT one point, Jude Bellingham took a fresh-air kick at an imaginary target – at another point, he turned and gave Gareth Southgate a frustrated look.

And then he stood theatrically with arms outstretched as if to ask the entire stadium what was going wrong.

The Ballon d’Or contender was not in a golden mood and he was not the only one.

Jordan Pickford’s jersey was orange, his face was regularly red with something approaching fury.

To be honest, Pickford is often like that – most goalkeepers are – but his anger was at the sloppiness in front of him, at the times when defenders chose to shuttle the ball towards him rather than be a touch more ambitious.

Look, England are through to the last-16 and that is all that matters and the players will form an orderly queue over the next couple of days to highlight teams who have won tournaments after poor group-stage campaigns.

But the frustration shown by Bellingham, Pickford and by others for long periods of this match does not bode well for their knockout campaign.