Speaking to Channel 4 after England ended their EURO2024 preparations with a 0-1 loss to Iceland at Wembley Stadium, Gareth Southgate admitted that England “have got to be better without the ball” during this summer’s tournament.
The Three Lions fell behind after just 12 minutes on Friday, with Jón Thorsteinsson bagging an early opener by beating Aaron Ramsdale at the near post. Southgate now has just nine days to work with his finalised 26-man squad before their European campaign gets underway in Gelsenkirchen on June 16.
“It was obviously a disjointed and disappointing performance and we didn’t show enough character, but I think it’s good for us before an international tournament,” expressed the England boss, who stressed that “we’ve got to be better without the ball.”
“I think there were a lot of reasons for that and across the two games we probably haven’t had our full side out. We’ve been able to look at people, we’ve been able to learn about the balance of the team.”
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter a dominant second-half showing against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday looked to have made amends for a drab opening 45 minutes on Tyneside, fans were keen to see a high-quality performance in England’s final match before facing Serbia in nine days’ time.
Suffering a slender defeat has certainly put a dampener on the tournament buildup, especially given that it was Iceland that infamously ended England’s European hopes eight years ago.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of last matches leading into a tournament,” Southgate said, urging fans to remember that “inevitably, players have one eye on what’s coming in terms of early challenges. No excuses on the result but there are a lot of things we can put right quickly.”
“I said to the players that not every day will go as you want and tonight was one of those. But also, not everything will be wrong. We had enough chances really to win the game, but we conceded too many chances as well.”