Jordan Pickford is not as good at goalkeeping as Thibaut Courtois.
Even the most hard-nosed England soccer fan can admit that their number one isn't on the same level as Thibaut Courtois.
Gareth Southgate knows it, England fans know it and deep down, Jordan Pickford knows it too.
The final group stage match between England and Belgium didn't tell us a whole lot. Both teams sent out second-string teams. So the only conclusion that we can really draw from it is that Belgium's bench is a little deeper than that of the Three Lion's.
The closely-contested game was decided with one superb effort. Adnan Januzaj received the ball inside the England box. He faked a shot before taking a touch to create some space before proceeding to curl it into the far corner. It was a goal few keepers would have been able to keep out.
That being said, Courtois believes he would have stopped it.
https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status/1012412849648386048
Get shorty
Courtois was blessed with physical advantages that a lot of footballers don't possess. The main one being his stature.
At 6' 5, the big Belgian towers over most of the opposition. In fact, just two players who travelled to Russia get a higher pencil mark on the door frame than Courtois. Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic is two centimetres taller while Danish defender Jannick Vestergaard has one centimetre on him. Pickford is considerably less imposing at 6' 1.
Courtois wasn't shy about pointing out the height differential to
Voetball24 as he explained why he wouldn't have conceded that Januzaj screamer.
'The goalkeeper is 10 cm smaller than me. I would have caught it. He was too busy throwing his legs in the air."
You know what? He's probably right.
