England to face Slovakia in last-16 as Georgia claim stunning win over Portugal

Bellingham’s message

Jude Bellingham has told his England teammates to forget about any negative supporters as he praised the fans who dragged him over the line against Slovenia despite being ‘absolutely dead’ on his feet.

Despite drawing widespread criticism for their performances at Euro 2024, England topped Group C and avoided what appears to be the much tougher half of the draw for the knockout stages.

Fans booed England off following a dour display against the Danes and followed suit after the Slovenia result, with beer cups thrown in the direction of manager Gareth Southgate, who has since called on any of the fans’ ire to be aimed at him rather than his players.

Bellingham, though, has spoken about the positive impact that the fans inside the RheinEnergieStadion had on him and wants to reward them with better performances moving forward.

“I think you definitely draw on them for energy towards the end of games,” he said.

“I felt like in the last game, I was absolutely dead but you hear them singing, hear them chanting and you can play at a level that’s not our best, it’s normal, it can happen.

“But I think the important thing is, when you’re wearing this badge and you’re representing those fans, is that you don’t give up and I think that they’re a constant reminder of that.

“I think it’s always interesting. I know there’s a lot of negativity outside the stadium and the camp but I always feel that when we get into the stadium, it’s so different.

“I think it’s important that as team-mates and as a team, we remember that the ones in the stadium are the ones that are going to give us the energy so don’t worry about the ones that aren’t there.

“We’ve obviously got to keep using that energy, using that feeling that we get from them, to be successful in this tournament.”