England 0-1 Belgium:

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England 0-1 Belgium: Gareth Southgate says last 16 game v Colombia the main focus (June 28 2018.

Gareth Southgate says preserving his starters was the main objective against Belgium as he focuses on England's biggest game in a decade against Colombia.

Southgate made eight changes from the Panama game and although Belgium made nine they pinched the win thanks to Adnan Januzaj's fine curling effort.

All the pre-game talk was of avoiding the likes of Brazil, France, and Argentina by finishing second, but although they achieved that they face the tougher of the last 16 ties against Colombia instead of Japan.

Southgate says that while he was not happy to lose the game, the main priority was ensuring a clean bill of health for his top men ahead of the next round.

"We want to win football matches so of course, we're not happy to come away from here having been beaten, but what that means for the next round we don't really know," Southgate told ITV.

"This is a game we wanted to win but the knockout game is the biggest game for a decade for us, so we've got to make sure our key players were preserved.

"Everybody's seen the level we've been playing at, we can see the level of some of the best, and we've just got to keep improving."

Belgium doing it the hard way

Belgium boss Roberto Martinez does not believe England were ready to settle for a defeat in order to finish in second place.

He said: "Not really no. I think you can say that obviously if they wanted to push for the game maybe they could have brought their captain Harry Kane on the pitch, but apart from that, I saw a group of players that wanted to do things well.

"I think when you are on the pitch it's very difficult not to try your best, it's a World Cup and you're playing for your nation. I saw an England team that tried what they could with the players they had on the pitch."

The Red Devils will now have to travel to Rostov-on-Don to face Japan in the last 16 on Monday, before a possible quarter-final against either Brazil or Mexico.

"You shouldn't look to cut corners or look for an easy path," added Martinez. "I think the only thing that matters now is that England face Colombia and we'll face Japan.

"There's no such thing as an easy route in the World Cup. Maybe an easy route if you want to get into a semi-final, on paper, but if you want to win a World Cup always you have to be ready and you have to be as strong as you can internally."

Vardy - no easy draws

England striker Vardy agreed with Martinez's assessment that there are no shortcuts to World Cup glory.

The Leicester man said: "I don't think there's any such thing as an easier half of the draw. Everyone's qualified for a reason. We've seen some big nations go out. "

Regarding Thursday's loss, he added: "We turned up here to win, we don't want to be losing.

"We created the chances, we've just not been able to put them away tonight. But we'll get back on that train knowing we're in the last 16 and we'll make sure we're focused on Colombia.

"We're still progressing, we're still working hard to make sure that we keep getting better. We are a work in progress."