World Cup 2018: England 0-1 Belgium – 5 Things we learned

REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Originally billed as the game to decide Group G, the past week saw this game devolve into the match nobody wanted to win. 

Whether England will benefit from a place in the much-vaunted second half of the fixture tree remains to be seen. 

What we do know is that these two teams will not be meeting each other in the final, at least, not in the form they were presented on Thursday evening.

But as Roberto Martínez’s celebration game gave him more reason to cheer and England’s Lions were left bitten by reality, what else was there to take away from the final group stage match of this tournament?