England fans say Jude Bellingham’s shoulder barge on Serbia’s Filip Kostic ‘needs to go in the Louvre’ as they praise star midfielder for ‘letting opponents know they were in a game’

Jude Bellingham was the man receiving all the praise after England’s win over Serbia… and it wasn’t just for his football.

Bellingham scored the only goal of the game with a thumping header after just 13 minutes and was a dominant presence throughout until his substitution in the second half.

And there was one moment in particular that endeared the Real Madrid man to the Three Lions fans.

Having already scored, Bellingham was seen shouting in the face of Serbia’s Filip Kostic before giving him a heavy shoulder barge.

It was a moment that got viewers at home pumped up and they quickly took to social media to praise the midfielder. 

‘The Jude Bellingham shoulder barge needs to go into the Louvre,’ wrote one. ‘Love it!’

‘That shoulder barge from Bellingham is why I love him,’ wrote another while one wrote ‘love that shoulder from Bellingham… letting em know they’re in a game.’

Gareth Southgate said after the game that his  star midfielder ‘writes his own script’ after helping England make a winning start.

Bellingham epitomised the spirit and skill England will need to go deep in the tournament, with Southgate full of praise for the match winner.

‘He writes his own script,’ he told the BBC. ‘The timing of his runs. It was a super bit of play in the build-up of his play. I think all of our forward players looked really good.

‘I am confident we will score goals. Playing against a back five, it is not easy to create chances and we did.

‘I liked the fact we had to suffer without the ball because that is an area we have worked on a lot this week. We were obviously much better than last week at doing that.’

Bellingham was the standout performer on a night when Southgate went for converted right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold as part of his midfield three along with Declan Rice.

‘I was really pleased,’ he said. ‘Of course, Jude has such a prominent role, but he goes forward a lot and Trent had to cover a lot of spaces. That is not a role he’s done very often at all.

Bellingham was the man of the match as England got their Euro campaign off to a winning start

‘I thought he showed great discipline. He showed some moments of that fabulous passing range that he has, the shot on goal as well.

‘We’re obviously learning with him in this role, but I thought he showed some of the attributes that he can bring.

‘Whatever we do in there, we’re going to be playing a young player or an inexperienced player, so it was great to see him come through that test.’