England’s Euros journey begins on June 16th against Serbia but before that they’ll have two warm-up friendlies.
Who are England playing?
England have booked friendlies against Iceland and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both teams are awaiting their fate in the Euros as they have big play-off games scheduled for March.
England will face Bosnia-Herzegovina first at St. James Park on June 3. Four days later they take on Iceland at Wembley.
Speaking about the warm-up matches, Southgate said: “We’re really looking forward to taking the team back to the North East and to a city that is synonymous with football in this country.
“We will follow that with another special occasion at Wembley allowing our fans the opportunity to give us a final send-off before we head to Germany for another exciting summer.
“Both opponents in June are sure to provide stiff competition and play an important part in our preparation for the tournament.”
England have two other friendlies penned in for March. They host Brazil (23rd) and Belgium (26th) – two heavyweights which will give us a sense of England’s chances of glory in June.
England’s Euro chances
England’s group stage draw for the Euros was quite a favourable one. They face Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia. Fans will be expecting England to top that group, but it’s how they’ll do in the knockout rounds that concerns.
The Three Lions were so close to clinching it in 2021 but were beaten by Italy on penalties. Typical.
They’ll want to put that right this time though and they’ll have every reason to believe. France and Portugal will no doubt be strong favourites too. Portugal won all their group stage matches. France were unbeaten as well as England, Belgium, Hungary and Romania.
France dismantled England in the World Cup quarter-final in 2022.
Southgate’s options have changed since 2021 with superstar Jude Bellingham hoping to breathe new life into England’s midfield. Bukayo Saka has grown since his devastating penalty miss, Harry Kane is breaking new ground in the Bundesliga, Trent Alexander-Arnold has made strides in his new midfield position. So who knows, maybe this year is the year that it finally comes home.
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