Tottenham star Jan Vertonghen fires warning at England over 'best Belgium squad'

Jan Vertonghen believes this is the best Belgium side he has played in and warned England they are only going to get better after starting with a 3-0 win over Panama here.

Dries Mertens’ stunning volley and a double from Romelu Lukaku earned Belgium’s Golden Generation a comfortable win but the scoreline was more convincing than the performance against the World Cup debutants.

Tottenham defender Vertonghen — the first Belgian to win 100 caps after making his debut 11 years ago — believes they are demonstrating their improvement, having lost 2-0 to Italy in their first match of Euro 2016, and laboured to a 2-1 win over Algeria in the opening game of Brazil 2014.

“I think this is the best Belgium team I’ve played in,” he told Standard Sport. “We’re a complete team. We’ve got everything— pace, technique, mentality, experience. I think this is the best now. Starting slowly and getting better is the ideal situation. We’ve been working together for two years towards this game [against Panama]. We’ve been training for four weeks to this game. There’s always going to be stress but I think we coped well.

“We’ve started with a win and a clean sheet. We’ve got Tunisia next and we’ve got to secure our last-16 place in that game.”

Belgium and England meet in Kaliningrad on Thursday week in a match expected to decide the winner of Group G.

Eden Hazard said his best is yet to come, despite an impressive performance. “I’m in a good moment,” he said. “The pre-World Cup was good, the friendly games I played in were good. I played well again today but we will see the best of Eden Hazard maybe later.”