Following the conclusion of the football league season and subsequently finals and play-offs, it’s now England’s time to warm up for the Euro’s being hosted in Germany from the 14th onwards. However, for those avid England fans, the results thus far have been less than impressive. Not providing much confidence or encouragement of any form or hope ahead of the tournament. The dissatisfaction was audible at Wembley following England’s last game before the international tournament.
Underdogs Iceland beat England on their home turf. And what was even worse was that the team that Southgate fielded was one of his strongest. Prior to this, the game beforehand was a bit more encouraging, resulting in a 3-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, again, they were big underdogs and so no other result apart from a win for the Three Lions was expected. And again, it comes down to England having to consistently live up to the expectations of the squad throughout this tournament and show not only consistency but stamina to power through until the end.
A squad in individual form
Although odds on England lifting the trophy are still strong at South Africa’s premier soccer betting operator, on paper, the team that England has is one of the strongest, with a lot of players in peak form being selected for the team. None more so than Jude Bellingham, who not only has youth on his side but has recently picked up his first UEFA Champions League trophy with Real Madrid. Iceland, of course, has in recent history had a shock win over England back in 2016 and so they wanted to repeat this success this time around but at Wembley.
Frank admissions
There were also admissions on the players behalf that they were far from good enough. Declan Rice once stated that to:
…“get beat 1-0 at home just before a Euros, it’s not ideal,” before going on to say that “between now and the next game, there’s work to be done”…
And it’s probably these two sentences that highlight where England is currently. Their performance thus far at an international level has been far from encouraging. However, those who are avid fans of England need to not be deterred by this and to stay positive. The power of the support of the crowd and the following behind the team is crucial, especially in tournaments overseas.
Groups for the tournament
What could be considered, in some way, a blessing is that the teams are in the same group as England for the tournament. They are in a group with Serbia, Slovenia, and Denmark. None of these teams have had any success in recent tournaments and none of them are carrying any consistent form going into this tournament. At the same time, it could be viewed in a different manner: England will have the expectation of being the favourites in every game. This was the same as when they were going into the pre-tournament game against Iceland and so sometimes the weight of bearing these expectations can have an adverse effect.
Tournament favourites
This is represented by Ledley King’s comments following the loss at Wembley, stating that he has confidence that they remain favourites to lift the trophy this summer, but at the same time, the 1-0 loss has served as a reminder that they cannot be complacent and that the standard of football that they were placing needs to improve dramatically should they want to get anywhere near the final this season. And he is right; statistically, bookmakers have the England team as the favourite to win the tournament. The calibre of squad that they’ve got, along with the youth and depth, is the best they’ve had in a while.
In Summary
Hopefully today has given a bit of an insight into what the state of affairs is when it comes to the England team at the moment. They are a squad with a lot of potential but have a lot of work to put in to improve the standards of the football that they’re playing at the moment before the tournament kicks off next weekend. And so we can’t possibly say whether this loss is a bad omen until we see what the outcome of the tournament is. However, I’m sure the squad and a lot of fans would have preferred to have seen the team go over to Germany off the back of a win on home soil rather than a loss to a team that were considered underdogs.
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