England got over the line against Serbia in their opening Euro 2024 match. The Serbians though pushed England hard and were it not for some wayward shooting and good saves from Jordan Pickford, things might have done differently.
Phil Thompson’s not worried though, he’s sure that England manager Gareth Southgate will take a lot from the games and that the Three Lions will improve over their coming fixtures.
We had a chat with Paddy’s pal to get his thoughts.
To win the opening game is so important. To get that under your belt is great. The performance was excellent for 30 to 35 minutes. Everything was working well.
They did drop off. The last 10 minutes of that first half Serbia came back into it, and in the second half you just expected a bit more from England.But you have to understand when a team is chasing the game, they are going to have to take it to the opposition.
I wasn’t too surprised by it. We’ve seen two good things: England’s attack in the first half Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham were fantastic, and we deserved that opening goal.
In the second half defensively we were good. There was just the one really good save Pickford had to make.Overall, I was pleased, but not overly pleased. You have to ease your way into tournament football.
In terms of the Denmark game, it was a bit of a concern when Trippier went down. It looks like it was just a bit of cramp and he got through it.
I woudn’t expect many changes. I think Gareth Southgate will look at it and think ‘that was good enough’. He’ll probably start with the same team.
If you look at tournament football over the years it’s better to start a bit slower but win matches and then improve as it goes on. The first game is always hard.
I’ve no doubt, England will get better.
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