After being a goal down at half-time, England produced a spectacular second-half comeback to give themselves a marvellous boost before the left for the World Cup in Brazil.

From being a disjointed and unhappy side before the interval, England were transformed into a superb fighting unit afterwards. An injury to Jackie Milburn, who was forced to go off after 15 minutes to be replaced by Jimmy Mullen. meant they had to reorganise with Tom Finney moving to the right wing and Mullen taking up the left-wing position.

For a while it had no real effect. Belgium had the better of the first half and took the lead in the 44th minute. A pass from Mees found Mermans completely unmarked in front of goal and in the area. He made no mistake and scored with a terrific right-foot shot.

Straight after the break though England equalised. Only a minute of the half had gone when Mullen picked up the ball and dribbled down the left before cutting inside to shoot neatly wide of Meert.

From that moment, England gradually got better and better. The attack was more thrustful and the defence tightened up considerably. On 66 minutes it appeared that a Belgian defender handled the ball well inside the area, but the referee awarded a free-kick outside the box. Justice appeared to be done, though as Finney placed the kick perfectly for Mortensen to head home.

A minute later England scored again. This time a brilliant move involving Mortensen and Roy Bentley ended with Wilf Mannion scoring.

But the visitors were totally dominating the game was Meert was called upon to make some fine saves, but two minutes from the end he was beaten again when Bentley scored England's fourth.
   

Wolves winger Jimmy Mullen became England's first ever substitute when he replaced injured Jackie Milburn, and he scored one of the goals as England staged a second-half recovery after trailing 1-0 at half-time. Roy Bentley had a foot in three of the goals and scored the last one himself in this final warm-up before the World Cup.  The Belgians, trained by former Blackburn and Northampton goalkeeper Bill Gormlie, scored  their goal through centre-forward Joe Mermans. It exposed the fact that England were still struggling at the heart of their defence. The match was virtually won for England by a half-time tactical talk from Walter Winterbottom. He was often accused of being too long winded and technical with his instructions, but he got straight to the point and made it clear how England should tighten at the back and push forward in midfield. England followed his orders and comfortably outplayed the Belgians in the second half. Poor Bill Jones had failed to impress the selectors, and was not even in the Party named the following week for the trip to Brazil. He had been thrown into the team at the last minute, which was hardly the proper preparation for his debut in international football.
    

The match against Belgium too place at Brussels on May 18th.
England won the match by 4 goals to 1 after being a goal down at half-time. Their recovery was spectacular - from being a somewhat disjointed team in the first-half, they became, after the interval, a splendid working machine, playing polished football.
Milburn was injured shortly after the beginning of the game, and after a quarter of an hour Mullen came on as a substitute, the first member of an English team ever to do so in a full international match. Belgium took the lead just before half-time with a terrific right-foot drive into the net by Mermans.
One minute after the interval, Mullen equalised. From now on England better and better, their forward play in particular reaching a very high standard. Mannion, who played what was probably one of his greatest games of his career for England, deserves special mention.
It was 20 minutes before another goal was scored. Finney took a free-kick and placed it perfectly in the goalmouth for Mortensen to head into the net. A minute later, Mannion scored from a fine movement by Mortensen and Bentley. After a wonderful display of accurate passing by the England forwards and some fine saves by the Dutch goalkeeper, Bentley scored England's fourth goal two minutes from the end.