The England team once again starts at the Euro with the intention take the title. Sports on the eve of the tournament in Germany presents eternal favorites with bright pluses and prominent minuses.
A judge from the USSR helped. The England team is a favorite at every tournament, but in its entire history it has only won a major tournament once — the 1966 home World Cup with the help of a phantom goal named after Tofik Bahramov. The team participated in the European Championships 10 times and reached the podium three times. She won bronze in 1968 and 1996, and reached the final in 2021, but lost to the Italians in the penalty shootout.
They dealt with ItalyThe English team passed the qualifying tournament for the European Championship without any serious problems, largely due to victories over their main competitors, the Italians (with a score of 3:1 and 2:1). They also took the maximum points in matches with the Maltese team (2:0, 4:0), four in matches with opponents from Ukraine (2:0, 1:1) and Northern Macedonia (7:0, 1:1). As a result, six matches were won in the qualification with two draws (the difference between goals scored and conceded was 22:4), and the gap from the Italian team, which came in second, was six points.
The team captain Harry Kane became the top scorer with eight goals, taking fourth place in the scorers' race in the qualifying round, Bukayo Saka scored four times.
The most expensive coach Gareth Southgate has led the national team since 2016. Under his leadership, the British achieved significant success twice: in 2018 they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, where they lost to the Croats, and in 2021 they became vice-champions of Europe. But the path to the 2022 world championship ended in the quarterfinals.
Southgate has won European Championships both as a coach (2021) and as a player (1996). His agreement with the national federation ends at the end of this year, and the result at the Euros will be the determining factor in the negotiations. By the way, Southgate has the highest salary of the coaches of the teams that qualified for the Euro (5.8 million euros per year). According to this indicator, Southgate is ahead, in particular, of the German Julian Nagelsmann (4.8) and the Spaniard Roberto Martinez (4.0), who works with the Portuguese team.
Eternal curseThe long-term captain and leader of the team is striker Harry Kane. The forward holds scoring records for both Tottenham and the England national team. But all the teams he played for never won anything.
In nine years, the national team has only won silver at the European Championship. Before the start of last season, the footballer moved to Bayern, which had previously won the German championship 11 times in a row. He updated several club records, scored 44 goals in 45 matches, but fate smiled sarcastically — only third place in the Bundesliga table.
Euro 2024 is perhaps one of the last hopes of the 30-year-old striker to achieve a bright team victory. And Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden, who have already achieved worldwide recognition, are called upon to help him in this.
20-year-old Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham stands out for his extraordinary actions and had an impressive club season, crowned with victory in the Champions League. And the 23-year-old Manchester City midfielder Foden is one of the most prominent figures in the composition of the permanent champion of England in recent years. Last season he scored 19 goals and eight assists in the Premier League.
Young joker One of the hopes is Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer. In April, at less than 22 years old, the player scored the first hat-trick in his career, hitting the Manchester United goal, and 10 days later he scored a poker goal against Everton. 22 goals during the season in the Premier League brought Palmer second place in the scorers race, he lost only to the Norwegian Erling Haaland (27). He played only three matches for the national team, but already managed to score a goal. At the European Championships, Palmer may not be in the main lineup, but he will undoubtedly have chances to prove himself.
Strict scheme with variety in attack. Southgate knows how to correctly analyze an opponent in certain matches and tries to neutralize his strengths as much as possible. This is not always completely successful, but often the preparations work. At the same time, sometimes the coach chooses pragmatic and overly cautious tactical schemes.
At the same time, the British probably have the strongest attacking line at the European Championship. Only the French can compete with them on paper. Leaders have high potential and are prone to extraordinary solutions. Much will depend on whether they will receive opportunities for unconventional, risky actions or whether they will be driven into the rigid framework of the chosen tactical plan. Southgate's challenge is to find a balance between a formidable attack and not always strong defense. The group stage matches will clarify a lot, because the Serbs, Danes and Slovenes are unlikely to play first.
Grealish and Maguire missed the application. When choosing the final squad, Southgate had to cut to the quick. To the surprise of many, there was no place on the list for two players from the main team of recent years. Representatives of Manchester clubs were excluded from the application: midfielder Jack Grealish, who played 36 matches for the national team, and defender Harry Maguire (63 games).
The English played four friendly matches in March and June — against teams from Brazil (0:1), Belgium (2:2), Bosnia and Herzegovina (3:0) and Iceland (0:1).
Euro calendar:
June 16. Serbia — England (Gelsenkirchen)
June 20. Denmark – England (Frankfurt am Main)
June 25. England — Slovenia (Cologne)