Euro 2024: Harry Kane is not England’s playmaker – Alan Shearer

England’s plan worked early on.

We had plenty of energy, Bellingham was brilliant – he was superb all game – and Bukayo Saka was absolutely unplayable down the right in the first half, but he did not have a look-in once Serbia came into the game after the break.

When we scored after 13 minutes, I was thinking we would go on and begin this tournament with the same sort of convincing wins that Germany and Spain started with, against Scotland and Croatia respectively, but we certainly did not do that.

Instead, from the last 10 minutes of the first half onwards, we really suffered. We could not get possession and Serbia increased their tempo, their aggression and everything else.

England could not really handle that, and we could not keep the ball either – so we had to defend well to hold out, and relied on Jordan Pickford to make a really good save to hang on for the three points.

It was a reminder of how, despite all the talent in this England squad, going the distance in Germany is going to be an extremely difficult task.

At the same time, we should remember that tournaments are not won or lost in the first game.

Before kick-off, Cesc Fabregas was talking about how his Spain side lost to Switzerland in their opening match at the 2010 World Cup and, at Qatar in 2022, Argentina were beaten by Saudi Arabia. Both teams went on to lift the trophy.

We have beaten Serbia and kept a clean sheet, so there are some positives to take into our next game in Group B against Denmark on Thursday – it is just there is plenty to chew on and work to do to improve.

Alan Shearer was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan in Germany.