With a worryingly subpar performance, England was unable to secure a spot in the Euro 2024 knockout stages as they battled to a 1-1 draw with Denmark.
Following the draw between Serbia and Slovenia earlier in the day, England knew that a win over the Danes would guarantee them the pool title. They looked well-positioned for the round of 16 when Harry Kane scored from close range after a quick Kyle Walker picked the pocket of a dozing Victor Kristiansen.
But England was condemned for doing nothing when they led Serbia 1-0 in their opening Euro match, and they did the same here. Gareth Southgate’s team passed the ball carelessly, dropping deep and lacking in enthusiasm. The star of Sunday, Jude Bellingham, was unrecognisable, while Trent Alexander-Arnold seemed uneasy in the middle of the pitch.
While Denmark attempted to equalise through some scrappy and dangerous moments in the England box, Morten Hjulmand’s incredible equaliser, which he blasted in off a post after Kane gave the ball away deep in his own half, was everything but scruffy.
When Phil Foden drove against an upright after the disappointing Alexander-Arnold had been hooked, Bukayo Saka attempted to rally his team after the break, looping a header over Kasper Schmeichel and into the side netting, but he was unable to convert in the rebound. This will undoubtedly put a stop to Southgate’s midfield experiment with the Liverpool player.
Although the England head coach is not usually daring, this performance called for an intervention, which was made on the 69th minute with a triple change. Jarrod Bowen, Ollie Watkins, and Eberechi Eze on. Foden, Saka, and Captain Kane are off. Watkins made an almost immediate impact, cutting in behind the Danish defence before his narrow angle effort was saved.
However, England were unable to overcome their lethargic play, as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg whistling a shot wide and the generally excellent Marc Guehi having to scramble to recover after giving the ball away.
England has advanced from the group stage very certainly, having taken four points from their first two games.
With this kind of exhibition, though, they won’t get very far in Germany.
England boss Gareth Southgate to BBC: “Clearly it wasn’t what we would’ve hoped. We’re not using the ball well enough and have to accept if you do that you’re going to suffer at times as we have tonight. We know there’s another level we’re going to have to find.
“We’ve played teams who are quite fluid in back threes, it’s not easy to get pressure on them, but we’ve definitely got to do it better than we have in these two matches.
“[Alexander-Arnold in midfield is] an experiment, we know we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips but we’re trying some different things – and at the moment we’re not flowing as we’d like.
“There’s a huge amount of work [to win the Euros], that’s evident from the performances we’ve given. We have to stay tight, we understand people will be disappointed with the performances – and rightly so. We’ve got to make them better.”
England captain Harry Kane to BBC: “We’re starting games well, but when the opponents are dropping a few players deeper we’re not quite sure how to get the pressure on and who’s supposed to be going.
“We’re struggling with and without the ball. We’ll have to go away and look back at it, but the pressure hasn’t been quite right in both games, and we haven’t been good enough with the ball top to bottom, that’s me all the way back to [Jordan] Pickford.”
Other posts by Hiresh
