Gareth Southgate has admitted there is ‘a lot of hard work’ still for England to do if they’re to live up to expectations.
The Three Lions are the tournament favourites to lift the prestigious trophy.
However, while fans across the country will be praying the national team can finally end 58 years of hurt, the manager appears to be taking a more cautious approach.
Kicking off their campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over Serbia on Sunday night, England, thanks to a 13-minute opener from Jude Bellingham, went top of Group C following a 1-1 draw between Slovenia and Denmark earlier in the day.
Jude Bellingham scored the winner for England against Serbia during Sunday night’s Group C match.
Gareth Southgate breaks silence on England expectations
But speaking after the match, Southgate, who has faced many hiccups in preparation for this summer’s tournament, including losing Harry Maguire to injury, suggested he is still working out what his best team, and system, is.
“The team is still coming together,” the England boss told Sky Sports.
“Everybody is expecting us to waltz through. There’s a lot of hard work ahead.
“We’re short of certain things, we’re finding the best possible solutions. We’ve had a very complicated run-in to all of this but the spirit of the group was there for everybody to see tonight and we’ll definitely grow from that.”
The Three Lions’ next match will be a 5 p.m. kick-off against Denmark at the Deutsche Bank Park stadium in Frankfurt on Thursday 20th June.
Three points against Christian Eriksen and co. will be enough for England to seal qualification to the tournament’s knockout round but fans will certainly be expecting to see a much improved performance following Sunday’s lacklustre display.
Source link : https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/06/17/gareth-southgate-england-expectations/
Author : Andrew Walker
Publish date : 2024-06-17 09:38:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.