England qualify for Euro 2024 after coming from behind to beat Italy

England 3-1 Italy (Kane 32′ pen, 77′, Rashford 57′ | Scamacca 15′)

WEMBLEY — How do you deal with Jude Bellingham? It’s the question footballers everywhere are now asking themselves. Nobody has the answer.

Certainly not Italy last night – the reigning European champions – who were an early goal ahead until Bellingham grabbed Wembley by the scruff of the neck and pinned it against a wall.

The midfielder who hauled England through the game that secured qualification for next summer’s Euro 2024 and must now be the player around which England manager Gareth Southgate builds his tactical plans for what could already be a defining tournament in the life of this young man from Stourbridge.

How exactly does someone only 20 years old impose himself on a game in such a way? It’s hard to quantify precisely: an innate self-confidence that is probably impossible to learn and is found only in a few.

This performance, this setting of standards he expects those around him to rise to, has become the norm, not the occasional flash of most supremely talented young footballers of his mould.

Look at the way he won the penalty – for there should be no doubt that he earned it, with intelligence, and speed, and guile.

The first touch was lucky, running on to Harry Kane’s clever through pass, the ball was kicked against Bellingham, taking him through the Italian defence. But the second was perfection, reaching the ball a fraction of a second before Giovanni Di Lorenzo. He knew the Italian defender would slide in, knew the angle, knew where his opponent’s boot would be in that moment.

Bellingham was never going to get the third touch. He didn’t care – he wanted the penalty. And he got it.

The referee pointed to the spot, while Bellingham rose to his feet, confronted the England crowd that had flattened with their team trailing by a goal, rotated his hands, as though ordering them to breathe it in, inhale the momentum he had created.

Bellingham had already twice geed up the Wembley crowd, in the first 15 minutes which England enjoyed but did not score in and again after Gianluca Scamacca had put Italy ahead. You could understand why the unease had set in watching the way England’s defence wilted at the first decent Italian attack. But Bellingham found England’s foothold in the game again.

There was a VAR check – there’s always a VAR check – but it was clearly a penalty, and Kane swept it in for his 60th goal in an England shirt.

The second goal was the epitome of what Bellingham has become. The sliding tackle to dispossess Nicolo Barella on the edge of England’s box, the surge up the pitch to break away. He passed to Marcus Rashford to do the rest. Kane added the third, but Bellingham was the catalyst for the calm conclusion to the game for all that had come before.

This is Jude Bellingham: goal scorer, goal creator, tackler, wrestler, cajoler, encourager, motivator, crowd pleaser.

Player of the match: Jude Bellingham

Hauled England back into a game they were losing, a menacing presence all over the pitch in what could have been a tricky match.

Are you not entertained? He claims not to know where that already iconic goal celebration derives from: arms outstretched wide, hard stare at the crowd, already mimicked by Vinicius Junior, his Real Madrid teammate, Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz in that social media post that has been viewed 27 million times, kids worldwide.

It is clearly from Russell Crowe’s famous scene in Gladiator, after he’s slashed through several opponents. But we’ll give Bellingham the benefit of the doubt – he was born three years after the film was released.

The midfielder left the field to a standing ovation and a giant hug from Southgate. He is England’s invincible gladiator on the football pitch – the world is his stage.