England manager Gareth Southgate admitted his players failed to live up to expectations after falling to a surprise defeat against Iceland in their final Euro 2024 warm-up match
Gareth Southgate will head for Euro 2024 with the derision of 81,410 Wembley fans ringing in his ears.
But as England’s send-off for a tournament they are widely-tipped to win turned into a humiliating defeat against a nation ranked 72nd in the world, the Three Lions boss insisted: “We’ll be ready for Serbia.”
Booed off after being embarrassed by Iceland, a familiar nemesis who knocked them out of the Euros eight years ago, Southgate’s flops looked nothing like the bookies’ favourites to triumph in Germany next month.
Defender John Stones is expected to be fit after being withdrawn at the break following an injury scare, but nothing else went right for England on a dismal night The Three Lions open their Euros campaign in Gelsenkirchen on June 16 and Southgate said: “I’m confident we will be better than we were tonight against Serbia in our opening game.
“I completely understand that we didn’t play well enough to keep the crowd excited. You would like a good performance and a crowd that’s been entertained to leave them on a high before the Euros and clearly we weren’t at the level we needed to be.
“It was a far from ideal night and I’m not going to dress up the disappointment as something else, so we have to stay calm because we will be better against Serbia. In a way it will focus the mind and it shows that any complacency, or thinking that talent alone is going to get us this trophy, won’t be enough. We have to be spot-on to win every game at this level. Iceland deserved to win, but it will focus our minds that we have to do better next weekend.
“It was a disjointed and disappointing performance and we didn’t show enough character. It’s not perfect but I’ve been involved in a lot of these last matches before a tournament as a player as well. No excuses for the result but there’s a lot of things we can put right quickly. There were questions asked that we weren’t able to answer.”
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On central defender Stones’ half-time withdrawal, Southgate said: “We think he’s probably ok but we didn’t want to take any chances.” And he absolved Premier League player of the season Phil Foden, who was off-colour, of blame, saying: “It wasn’t about individuals, the team wasn’t good enough. Phil looked bright at the start but the team lost confidence and composure.”
England were stunned by Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson’s 12th-minute goal, smuggled in at keeper Aaron Ramsdale’s near post. Although skipper Harry Kane and Cole Palmer missed glorious chances to equalise, England were lucky Sverrir Ingason and Thorsteinsson didn’t add to their embarrassment.
Kane posted on social media; “Not how we wanted to sign off for the Euros but loads to learn from and we’ll get stronger! Get behind the lads and we’ll see you in Germany.”
And midfielder Declan Rice admitted: “When we have that much of the ball, we have a couple of clear-cut chances and get beat 1-0 at home just before a Euros it’s not ideal.
“In the end it becomes a frustration game, you’re chasing your tail a little bit and get caught on the counter-attack. It’s not ideal we lost but there’s a lot of learning curves you can build on as a team.
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“Maybe against the teams that sit in it’s about being a bit mentally switched-on. I felt at times we were a little stretched, not as compact as we usually are. Inside I’m hurting and between now and the next game there’s work to be done.”
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