European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Go to the competition website from this link.
England’s EC tournament can be summed up like this: The team has been the talk of the town because of how miserably and confusedly it has played with its quality material. Still, it has been among the biggest champion favorites throughout the Games.
Championship estimates have been affected by England ending up on the clearly easier side of the playoff chart.
When Opta calculated fresh probabilities, however, the biggest champion favorite is Spain (30.38%), followed by France (29.9%), England (22.85%) and the Netherlands (16.86%). So it is clearly more likely that the champion will be found in the first semi-final.
The British media got excited
The British media saw quite a complete turnaround on Saturday. In the past, England’s playing had only been boring.
On Saturday, the head coach Gareth Southgate had changed the formation of his team completely. The defensive line of four had been changed to three toppers.
There was a lot of good in the changes. As a wing-back Bukayo Saka was dangerous and finally scored the equalizing goal superbly. Phil Foden enjoyed being able to roam more freely in the 10 range of Jude Bellingham with – previously Foden had been forced to be a winger.
However, many were of the opinion that Southgate’s changes charmed too much. Although the opening period against Switzerland ended 0-0, suddenly England’s performance had many pundits praising it.
A well-known British specialist, a defensive legend Jamie Carragher offered his view of the situation:
– Based on the BBC broadcast, England leads 2-0. Based on Twitter, England is 0–1 down.
After the quarter-final, Carragher gave his verdict In his comment on the Telegraph website. According to Carragher, England defy football logic, because it is not normal to play so badly and keep winning.
For a reason, England rides waves of positivity. England can still make history and win their first European Championship gold. Only winning matters, not style.
However, Carragher pointed out that England’s European Championship gold would be compared to the championships that defied the odds in Greece 2004 and Portugal 2016 – not, for example, Spain’s 2008 and 2012 dominance.
Carragher sees that Southgate has been consistently reactive, not proactive. When Switzerland gained control, Southgate didn’t react until suddenly with a triple substitution after Switzerland had already scored.
Confusingly, at this stage of the tournament, England’s line-up and formation are big conundrums. Southgate still doesn’t know how to get the best out of his team.
Carragher emphasized that no team has won the championship without finding their own best potential.
– We cannot escape reality. England were lucky first against Slovakia and then against Switzerland. They are in the top four despite their performances, not because of them.
But there were enough more positive voices as well. British legend, TV pundit, Alan Shearer was eager in his BBC columnhow wonderfully England survived in the tough competition.
England’s back-to-back record was historically bad before the quarter-finals. Now England’s veskar Jordan Pickford has rejected four bets out of fourteen in the rank races.
Shearer also saw that England needs to play better, but raised cohesion as the team’s biggest weapon right now.
– Pressure? What pressure? Shearer described England’s toughs.
– Pressures are for tires! Shearer had shouted on the air when England knocked Switzerland out.
Head coach Southgate was an unlucky warrior in the 1996 European Championship semi-final. In the 2021 European Championship final, he watched from the sidelines as Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Saka failed in their efforts.
Now Shearer considers England’s new generation and Southgate’s coaching as a role model Cole Palmer. The youngster, who had just made his debut in the national team, sank the first goal in the quarter-finals as if he were playing from a park foot.
Perhaps the pleasure that Southgate emphasizes a lot will finally materialize in the national team.
Why does the head last now?
If you include the World Cup, the European Championship and the League of Nations, England has won four of its 11 ranked matches in prestigious competitions. Under Southgate’s coaching, England have won three of their last four competitive matches.
England’s players and fans may no longer associate the first word fear with the top-flight.
– We have players who are ruthless and have confidence in themselves. Sometimes these most important games can come down to that, ex defense Matt Upson stated.
Jude Bellingham aired his success in the usual pompous way. Cole Palmer truly lived up to his nickname, Cold Palmer. Ivan Toney the goalkeeper stared intently during the acceleration Yann Sommer and didn’t even glance at the ball.
– That’s my routine. That’s what I do. Some people think it’s crazy, but it works, Brentford striker Toney summed up.
Then why was England so good in the rucks? Ex defender Gary Neville toldthat during his national team days “everything” was tried.
In the national team, it was thought that the rank and file competitions are a lottery game, 50–50. In 2006, those who had won the tough competition in training were drawn. So even Jamie Carragher suddenly ended up shooting hard shots.
Chris Markham worked for four years in the English Football Association, leading the study of the game. According to Markham, the five head coaches before Southgate had suggested that “the fans are a lottery”, “you can’t train under that kind of pressure” and so on.
Neville revealed that Southgate’s coaching staff have ditched the nonsense and taken a very methodical approach.
Southgate takes three players at a time to a quiet area in training. There, tough guys train in short but focused sessions. Let’s go through speed steps, pace, angles, eye alignment, breathing technique…
Jude Bellingham highlighted the ex-Chelsea striker who is part of the coaching team Jimmy Floyd Hasselbain too role. Besides Pickford, the team’s other goalkeepers also have a significant task.
– This is a huge team effort. They don’t get the credit they deserve, but if they don’t put in the right effort, we don’t get to train properly.
Southgate was hurt
Southgate became the third head coach to lead the England A national team in 100 matches.
Southgate is by many measures England’s most successful head coach, but he has received huge criticism in the European Championships.
The semi-final win also freed Southgate. He now openly admittedhow has it felt to get rapa.
– I can’t deny that it wouldn’t have hurt when things became so personal. I don’t think it’s normal to get beer thrown at you.
– I took this job to try to improve English football, to give us nights like this. We give people great memories.
Southgate also revealed that he was very frustrated that his plan for a three-man line was leaked to the media three days before the match.
– Many of our processes are shared. We live in an amazing world because any element of surprise that I might have is gone. It is unbelievable.
Naturally, Southgate was glowing for his team. According to the head coach, Englati has shown the resilience that Italy, France and Spain showed in their championship years. Then it’s not about playful nuances.
On both days, live broadcast from 21:15 on TV2, Areena, app and website monitoring.
Tuesday 9.7.
At 22:00 Semi-final: Spain–France
Wednesday 10.7.
At 22:00 Semi-final: Holland–England
The races are followed moment by moment in the app and on ‘s website in this article.