Serbia 0-1 England: Talking points as Three Lions start Euro 2024 with narrow but important win

England started their Eur0 2024 adventure with a narrow triumph over Serbia in Group C at Schalke’s Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, the only goal of the game being the work of Jude Bellingham in the 13th minute.

The teams

England boss Gareth Southgate deployed his men in a  4-2-3-1 shape, with Jordan Pickford in goal, the pair of John Stones and Marc Guehi in the heart of defence, Kieran Trippier on the left and Kyle Walker on the right. Trent Alexander-Arnold paired up with Declan Rice in midfield, while captain Harry Kane, as the main attacking focal point, had the trio of Phil Foden, Bellingham and Bukayo Saka in support.

Dragan Stojkovic, on the other hand, chose a back three of Milos Veljkovic, Nikola Milenkovic and Strahinja Pavlovic. In the middle of the park, Nemanja Gudelj and Sasa Lukic were flanked by Filip Kostic and Andrija Zivkovic. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was slightly further up, before the attacking duo of Dusan Vlahovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

The game

The opening 15-20 minutes belonged to England completely, as Serbia appeared unable to do practically anything but hang on with a deep block. The Eagles simply couldn’t hold on to the ball and get forward, and it became obvious they would crumble under the pressure sooner or later.

The goal came with just over 12 minutes gone, when Saka got behind Kostic on England’s right and with plenty of luck, sent the ball into the box where Bellingham displayed his knack for smart movement and aerial ability to head past Rajkovic in the Serbia goal.

But with perhaps a quarter of the game gone, Stojkovic’s team got a lot more into the contest and started spending plenty of time in England’s half. Still, they were unable to create much, and the only chance they had was a powerful effort by Mitrovic that whizzed just wide of the post having forced Pickford into a full stretch. Stojkovic was forced to make his first change of the match two minutes before the 45 were up as Kostic…

Source link : https://www.soccernews.com/serbia-0-1-england-talking-points-as-three-lions-start-euro-2024-with-narrow-but-important-win/372732/

Author : Veselin Trajkovic

Publish date : 2024-06-16 21:58:28

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