On Friday night, as Germany were setting a pace for their tournament by thrashing Scotland, Gareth Southgate gathered the England squad for a meeting. The theme of this was more reflective, almost a final mission statement before it all begins. Southgate spoke about the tournaments they’ve already been through and the lessons that his staff and senior players have taken.
That’s more important than usual, given that 12 of the 26 have never even been in this situation before. Southgate did also point to how some elements from the past that have served England well can now be discarded. That doesn’t really apply to opening games, though.
England actually have a fine record in such matches under Southgate, that has actually improved with each tournament. In 2018, there was the late 3-1 win over Tunisia. In Euro 2020, there was a professional – and vengeful – victory over Croatia .
In 2022, there was the 6-2 evisceration of Iran. England were almost the Germany of that tournament. As to whether Southgate’s team can follow the hosts on Sunday, in the way Spain did by destroying Croatia , as well as their own trend, that is another unknown about this first match against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen.
It is why this feels more portentous than any of those two previous opening games, maybe the most telling since Tunisia. We’ll get a sense of what this new England are. Duly, after a lot of rumination over the past few weeks, Southgate at least seems to have an idea of what his .
