England's Trent Alexander-Arnold said he was "very disappointed" to lose the final World Cup group-stage game to Belgium, and said the team did not pay attention to talk that they were better off losing.

The result means England will face a tougher test in the round of 16 against Colombia, rather than Japan, but the rest of the knockout-stage draw is a significantly easier path, with the winners of Sweden and Switzerland awaiting in the quarterfinals should the Three Lions advance.

Belgium, meanwhile, are on the same side of the bracket as Brazil, Mexico, France, Argentina, Uruguay and Portugal, but Alexander-Arnold rejected the thought that England were not too unhappy to finish as Group G runners-up.

"We weren't focused on any of that before the game," the 19-year-old told ITV after making his competitive England debut. "Everyone is disappointed now. You don't want to see smiles in the changing rooms. You want to win every game."

- World Cup knockout-stage bracket

- Ogden: Belgium beat England in dour affair

- Ratings: Squad players do little to impress

Asked about the challenge that awaits against Colombia, Alexander-Arnold said: "Everyone who is in the last 16 deserves to be there.

"There are no easy games ahead of us. It will be very tough. If you look back to the last World Cup, they did unbelievably well. They have shown in this World Cup that they can bounce back from a defeat and win games. It is not going to be easy at all."

Belgium finished top with Adnan Januzaj's second-half goal the only difference between the sides, and though England were only applying mild pressure at the end of the game, Alexander-Arnold was not pleased.

"I'm very disappointed," the Liverpool man said. "We came into the game wanting to win it, obviously we never won it, but we are still in the round of 16 and something to look forward to. ...

"They controlled a lot of possession. We had our chances and never took them. Equally, they had one big chance and they took it. It was a good goal at the end of the day.

"We can only regret the chances we didn't take. But we are in the round of 16, out the group stages, which was the first objective for the team."

England scrapped but didn't try terribly hard to force the issue vs. Belgium. AP Photo/Alastair Grant

Striker Marcus Rashford said it was important not to let the result against Belgium affect England's mentality moving forward.

"It's obviously disappointing but we have to keep our spirits high in the camp and we have to take positivity into the next game, which is a obviously an important game for the county," he said.

"Sometimes it's difficult to keep the positivity and spirits up, especially after a defeat, but we were playing against a good team today. So it's definitely a good test for us but we have to look forward to the next game."

But Rashford rejected the notion that the setback was a "reality check," adding: "We know it's early on in the process of what we're trying to do, but this is just a chance to try and prove it today.

"It was difficult today but we have an opportunity now to improve in the days of training before the next game."