England striker Marcus Rashford (No.11) competes for a header with Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel at Wembley stadium in London on Sunday. Photo: VCG

Gareth Southgate believes England gave a glimpse of what they can achieve by beating Belgium 2-1 to move top of their Nations League group.

The visitors arrived in London as the top-ranked side in the world following 12 consecutive wins in competitive games.

After Romelu Lukaku's early penalty put Belgium in front, England bounced back through Marcus Rashford's spot kick and Mason Mount's deflected winner 25 minutes from time.

The Three Lions move one point ahead of Belgium at the top of League A, Group 2 with three more games, including another meeting between the sides in Brussels next month to come.

England will host the majority of their games at next year's rescheduled European Championships with Belgium one of the major threats to their chances of winning the competition for the first time.

"We are not going to face a more difficult game ­defensively," said Southgate. 

"It was a brilliant test, the sort of test we need. That is the beauty of the Nations League, you get games against this level of opponent... It's a great experience for them and to go and win it should give them a sense of what might be possible in the next few years."

Southgate was without a ­several players from his strongest side with captain Harry Kane only fit enough to feature as a second-half substitute and Raheem Sterling injured and Ben Chilwell ill.

Those absences took their toll early on as England were fortunate to weather a Belgian storm. Belgium took a deserved lead on 16 minutes when ­Lukaku's pace drew Eric Dier into a ­naive challenge and German referee Tobias Stieler eventually pointed to the spot after a delay. Lukaku fired home his 53rd international goal from the spot.

But Belgium failed to build on their lead and conceded a soft penalty themselves when Thomas Meunier pulled down Jordan Henderson from a corner. Rashford was awarded an MBE for his work in the fight against child poverty on Friday and the Manchester United forward took responsibility from the spot in Kane's absence to cap a special weekend.

It was England who got the vital third goal when Mount's shot looped high off Toby Alderweireld and dropped into the far corner.

England held out for a morale-­boosting win, with Henderson also hoping victory could be a springboard into Euro 2020.

"We want to compete with the very best teams, and Belgium are certainly that," said the Liverpool captain. 

"We competed very well and that's what we want to do, keep competing and growing and you never kno where that may take us."