Jordan Pickford was back between the sticks in a major international tournament for England and earned a record-equalling clean sheet in the process and Jude Bellingham’s goal was enough to edge Serbia.
The imperious Real Madrid midfielder powered home a brave 13th-minute header to score the only goal of a tight contest that rather stagnated from England’s perspective after half-time and the Serbs made a concerted effort to ruin another victorious start for Gareth Southgate.
The Three Lions’ head coach had Pickford to thank, though, for a fine save eight minutes from the end when he palmed Dusan Vlahovic’s wicked strike over the crossbar.
That preserved a 10th clean sheet in major competition for Pickford that puts him level with Peter Shilton.
Meanwhile, Vitalii Mykolenko was named among the substitutes despite aggravating his ankle injury as Ukraine were beaten heavily by Romania.
And in their opening group game, Amadou Onana and Belgium were defeated by Slovakia, although had Romelu Lukaku left the Everton midfielder’s towering header off a set-piece, it might have dropped in and levelled the scores in the first half.
Instead, the former Blues striker touched the ball over the line and the goal was ruled out for offside, as was another Lukaku strike late on that was very harshly chalked off for handball in the build-up.