Key events
Where is the game? For Serbia, it’s obvious: they’ll want to get it wide and put crosses into the box. Neither Stones nor Guéhi are dominating, and Mitrovic will fancy himself against either.
As for England, they know they might have to be patient. They’ve so many routes to goal, but against a back-five picking one can be tough; I imagine they’ll look to Foden to stretch the pitch and Bellingham to receive the ball deep, meaning Kane can hit the box. And they’ll also look to tee-up Kane – the best 12-22 yard finisher i’ve ever seen – and Alexander-Arnold for shots from the edge.
“Definitely think (like you and my friend Jeff) that Southgate is missing a trick by playing Fill (sic) Phoden on the left,” reckons Colum Fordham. “He’s clearly more dangerous coming in from the right. Saka could probably adjust to the left wing more easily. Still think it’s a shame Grealish was omitted. His creativity on the left may well be missed.
That said, we have a strong team, especially up front but the Serbs will give us a good test, I’m sure. Especially Milenkovic Savic who used to play brilliantly for Lazio, and Vlahovic. I made the mistake of booking a flight that clashes perfectly with the match so I’ll be praying I have something to look forward to when I watch the highlights! Will be reading the Guardian blog with interest when my plane lands!”
So you’re saying we’re not worth plane wifi? Dead to me.
My 10-year-old just came in as Kraftwerk were playing over a Harry Kane interview. “What’s this?!” she asked. “This is vibey!”
That has got to be Ralf Hütter’s finest hour, pipping his pioneering the genre of electronica.
“I’m with you on Bellingham,” says Andy Wood. “It felt like once he moved higher for Madrid there was this unspoken expectation he’d do the same for England. He played deeper for BVB but that said, he did roam around a LOT so I don’t know how happy that would make Southgate Not really sure what to expect tonight.”
I totally get the move: scoring goals is the hardest thing in the game, so if you’ve got someone who can do it, help them. But England have plenty of others who do it better, whereas they struggle for control – especially against big sides. I think he can help with that.
He’s got the look!
I say that because what, I think, is missing from the England midfield is those little balls around the corner that get them out and up the pitch. I might get pelters for this, I probably will, but I actually wonder if, two years from now, Rice – though a superb player – doesn’t start, because Wharton-Mainoo-Bellingham offers better balance and versatility. Of course, Wharton and Mainoo have much work to do before they get to Rice’s level, but their raw materials might just be better.
A problem Southgate has is that he has so many high-level players; it means he’s loads of options off the bench, but makes it much harder to pick the right ones to start. I’d be surprised to see tonight’s XI start the last eight match, should England make it that far – I think they might want the ball-retention of Mainoo or Wharton for that.
I ought also to have noted that Vanja Milinković-Savić, brother of Sergej, has been dropped from the Serbia goal; Predrag Rajlkovic comes in for his first international appearance in two years.
“I assume that the Guardian pays you extra for these games,” writes Charles Antaki. I mean, what more is there to say? What more emotions are there to feel, what more predictions are there to make, what sort of hopes/fears/joys are there to contemplate? I hope for your sake that you have access to some kind of football-vibe thesaurus that you can dig to when the going gets rough.
Luckily they’ve downloaded that exact volume into our brains. It’s not always helpful – shrieking “GOAL!” while ordering a pizza is sometimes frowned upon – but we exist to serve.
On Bellingham, I feel like I’m still waiting for a definitive performance in a big game. Of course he’s absolutely brilliant, and if he keeps improving we could be talking about one of the best. But I’d like a little more than I’ve seen so far, and though I totally understand why he’s been moved further forward – the same happened to Cesc Fábregas – but it means he’s less involved in the game than ideal. The first time I saw him play, I thought “Bryan Robson” and I have little higher praise to offer; but now, he’s mainly hanging about waiting for moments, when he has the skills to dominate. I guess he might move back for Madrid, now they’re getting Mbappé and Endrick, but Carlo Ancelotti recently suggested to the contrary.
Southgate sees Alexander-Arnold as a great passing option who gives different option to the other players England have. He thinks Bellingham has found the right moments to arrive into the box and has been finishing well, so just needs to keep doing what he’s doing.
He says Serbia, meanwhile, pass it well, but also go long so are tricky opening opposition.
Back to the England XI, Fill Phoden is in the side, but off the left. I wonder a little about this, not because I wonder about Foden – I don’t the first time I saw him play at age-group level, I knew he was special – but is he England’s best left-winger? I imagine we’ll see him all over, but I’m not sure the side will be well-drilled enough to get in the rotations that’ll get the most from him. Nevertheless, though, he can do anything from anywhere, so.
“Last Euros final – watching in a bar in New York,” says Adam Bremner. “Halfway through some random guy walks in and yells ‘Soccer’s coming home!’ He was lucky to get out of there without suffering grievous bodily harm!”
Tangential I know, but the word “grievous” forces me to post one of the great underrated albums.
Trent, then. If Southgate wants Harry Kane’s goals to come via high balls, whether crosses or digs to the back post, Alexander-Arnold is the man. Other hand, the European Championships are no place to learn how to work the engine room, and though he can make a goal happen at any moment, I’d worry for England in general play if they were taking on one of the better sides with him in there.
Egland, meanwhile are as expected. Marc Guehi gets the call to partner John Stones in the absence of Harry Maguire, while alongside Declan Rice at the base of midfield, Trent Alexander-Arnold is preferred to Kobbie Mainoo, Conor Gallagher and Adam Wharton.
Serbia have some serious attacking talent in that XI. Their main man is Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, but Dusan Vlahovic and Aleksander Mitrovic are a proper and physical handful, while Filip Kostic is precisely the kind of left-winger those two need to do their thing. As such, it’s not so shocking that Dusan Tadic is on the bench, though behind them, the quality isn’t the same, but if their blanket-defence can keep England out, they’ve a very good chance of making something happen.
Righto, I’ll write these down, then we’ll wonder what they mean.
Tonight’s teams!
Serbia (3-5-1-2): Rajkovic; Veljkovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic; Zivkovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Gudelj, Lukic, Kostic; Vlahovic; Mitrovic. Subs: Petrovic, Milinkovic-Savic V, Stojic, Maksimovic, Jovic, Tadic, Babic, Mijailovic, Ilics, Ratkov, Samardzic, Gacinovic, Spajic, Mladenovic, Birmancevic.
England (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier; Alexander-Arnold, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Foden; Kane. Subs: Ramsdale, Henderson, Shaw, Konsa, Dunk, Gallagher, Toney, Gordon, Watkins, Bowen, Eze, Gomez, Palmer, Wharton, Mainoo.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (italy)
Paul MacInnes
Further to Jacob’s post from earlier, I can confirm that it’s been no easier for people travelling by train. With Gelsenkirchen station the main centre for people gathering before the match, there were not nearly enough buses or trans to cope with demand (though there were dozens of police vans to attend to people hiding from the rain). Literally thousands of people are walking the four-mile journey from station to the ground, most of them after a day on the beer. I have seen no trouble though.”
Damian Clarke returns: “I was in Lisbon in 2004, staying in a mate’s flat. Afternoon the penalty finish, I had maybe three hours of his neighbours throwing things at the windows, singing, dancing, and shouting ‘English aaah!’.”
Glorious, i trust you joined it? I’d not class myself as an England fan – my two last trips to Wembley internationals have been in the away end – but I was in Tarabin, Egypt at the start of the 1998 World Cup. We got ourselves into suitable nick then settled down for the decisive group game against Colombia … except, of course, they were showing Tunisia v Romania.
Good news for both of tonight’s teams: Slovenia and Denmark, the others in the group, have drawn 1-1.
“Surely ‘You could wait for a lifetime/To spend your days in the sunshine/You might as well do the white line’” are lyrics that England fans live by, judging by last Euro’s flare-associated fan, er … excesses?” wonders Nick Smith.
Ey up, The Woke Mob are in town.
Email! “Now that is a dapper chap,” says Damian Clarke. “I’ll take that picture tomorrow when I go to see my tailor, he’s called Simon, I know it’s going to fit.”
I struggle to understand much, but beige syoots are very close to the top of my unfathomable hit parade.
What funny stuff have you seen and heard watching England in tournaments? One from my own catalogue: I watched the 1998 Argentina game in Edgware’s world-famous Railway Tavern. After England lose, a friend I’d made during the course of the evening advised me he was in the mood for a rampage. “What cars do they make in Argentina?” he wondered. “Er, not many,” I replied diplomatically. “I’ll find some,” he assured me.
Anyone catch a peep at Michal Probierz, the Poland manager, earlier? As roxette were wont to declare, he’s got the look.
I wouldn’t say ITVX is the worst playback app, but it’s in the bottom one.
Jacob Steinberg
Our men in Gelsenkirchen:
It could be a tight squeeze for fans going to England’s game against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen this evening. I’m with Jonathan Liew and we’ve been on a tram that left our base in Essen almost 90 minutes ago. We saw an absolute mess at what appeared to be an England fan park, tipping down with rain, packed buses, huge queues, packed trams. Nobody appears to know what’s going on. It looked tense between some fans and the German police. We are now waiting for another tram to the ground. The organisation has been shocking.
Stereotype-busting work indeed.
Currently covered for your delectation:
Preamble
There can be no country more intimately acquainted with the concept of “jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today” – than England. Whether Brexit, trickle-down economics or celebrating devastating wars those involved ache to forget, the idea that things were better then and will be better in the future distracts people from the only thing that really exists: right expletive now.
And “right expletive now” is precisely where Gareth Southgate’s England find themselves. No longer can they feel proud of how close they’ve come before, impressing in a succession of tournaments before losing to the first semi-decent side they face; no longer can they assume that, as the squad matures, they’ll pick up a trophy at some unspecified point yet to come; rather, this nucleus and this manager either do it here, or they don’t do it at all.
So, how? Well, Noel Gallagher is no one – save Noel Gallagher’s – idea of a lyricist. But his observation that “everything that’s been has passed, the answer’s in the looking glass” is a rare slice of real talk in line with current therapeutic thinking and exactly how Southgate’s men need to attack the next few weeks. The biggest impediment to England dancing about with the Henri Delaunay four weeks today is … England.
Serbia, though, can pose a stern test. Their particular proficiency at set-pieces is a threat to a side lacking dominating centre-backs, they’ve nasty attackers, and no one expects them to do anything. But if Southgate is able to search inside himself to find his best blend – not the one that causes least controversy, or gives him most security. And if the players can remind themselves to be brave at big moments, think clearly when asked taxing questions and trust themselves to do what they feel – which they should – then they’ve as good a chance as anyone, and if they can’t, like Brexit, trickle-down economics and the aftermath of devastating wars, they’ve no chance at all. Jam: your time is now.
