Day: June 22, 2024

England coach Gareth Southgate agrees the team is disappointing for their 1-1 draw with Euro 2024 opponents Denmark on Thursday. 

Morten Hjulmand’s long range drive cancelled Harry Kane’s opener.

This means that England’s last 16 chances enter into the final group game.

Southgate said after the match: “Clearly not what we would have hoped. We’re not using the ball well enough and we have to accept that if you do that you will suffer at times as we have tonight. We know there’s another level we have to find. 

“I think we’ve played teams that are quite fluid in back threes and it’s not easy to get pressure on them but we’ve got to do that better than we have in these last two matches. Not keeping the ball has been another problem.”

On Trent Alexander-Arnold  in midfield, he continued: “He’s had some moments where he’s delivered what we thought he would. We know it’s an experiment. We know we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Philips. We’re trying different things and at the moment we’re not flowing as we’d like. 

 “There’s a huge amount of work, that’s evident from the two performances we’ve given and we’ve got to be tight. We understand people will be disappointed with the performances and rightly so and we’ve got to make them better.”

Spain qualified for the knockout stages of the Euro 2024 with a match to spare after defeating Italy 1-0 in their 11th appearance at a major football contest. With this being their fifth meeting in European Championships, but Spain and Italy were familiar rivals as they took the field in search of success within their respective groups. 

Spain showed they can move on, after Italy eliminated them at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024. Their win over Croatia was with less possession; the first time since the Euro 2008 final.

La Roja saw plenty of the ball early in their match with Italy, and some grand build-up saw Pedri’s header cause a spectacular save from Gianluigi Donnarumma. 

Italy could not maintain Spain’s space and Nico Williams tried his golden headed chance 10 minutes in, nodding past the post. 

As the half continued, the Italians seemed to strike on the counter, but the Spanish dominated as Alvaro Morato sent a shot at Donnarumma, before the keeper pulled off another save from Fabian Ruiz’s long-range effort.

Having witnessed an early chance foiled within 90 seconds of the first half, there was an early second-half symmetry  as Pedri sent his 12-yard shot wide of the goal.

Given their inability to find the back of the net, maybe Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuented was relieved when his team led the match, thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s own goal 55 minutes into the game; although it was well-deserved for Spain.

Spain showed glimpses of their golden era by the way they passed the ball around, with Italy unable to keep up with Lamine Yamal, Pedri, and Williams. Yamal almost scored one of the goals in the match with 20 minutes to go, curling an impressive attempt into the woodwork from the edge of the box.

The Italian team finally penetrated Spain’s defence with 10 minutes left, but it was too late. However, Italy will hope to play better when they face Croatia in a crucial group stage game.

Spain, continue to defy critics and are playing their best football ahead of their meeting with Albania.