Gareth Southgate felt England lacked character as they lost 1-0 to Iceland on Friday, but was not concerned by their performance ahead of Euro 2024.
The Three Lions were beaten at Wembley Stadium in their final warm-up game before they travel to Germany to start their European Championship campaign. England dominated possession and had many more attempts at goal than Iceland, but managed just one shot on target to the visitors’ four.
Iceland 𝑼𝑷𝑺𝑬𝑻 England 😱 pic.twitter.com/XHd4fwitIZ
— 433 (@433) June 7, 2024
England now have nine days to prepare for their opening game of the major tournament but Southgate feels it is only natural for some players to put in a poor performance so close to the start of their campaign.
Southgate and his England team will head to Germany to prepare for their tournament opener against Serbia on June 16, which will take place at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. They will then face Denmark and Slovenia.
“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,” he told Channel 4.
“I think we’ve got to be better without the ball. I think that there were a lot of reasons for that and across the two games we probably haven’t had our full side out across any two games. We’ve been able to look at people, we’ve been able to learn about the balance of the team.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of last matches leading into a tournament. 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 eight quickly.”
Gareth Southgate provides an update on John Stones and looks back on tonight's game at Wembley…pic.twitter.com/6lCRZg2wjC
— England (@England) June 7, 2024
Asked if his team are ready for the competition kicking off, Southgate added: “We’ll be ready. Tonight hasn’t gone as we would have hoped. 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.”
