England’s Euro 2024 preparations were severally dented on Friday (June 7) evening after they suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at the hands of Iceland. The contest played at Wembley Stadium offered a good reality check to Gareth Southgate’s men before they travel to Germany for the main tournament. After the match midfielder Declan Rice insisted that there is still work to be done for England if they are to win the Euro 2024.
"There's work to be done," said the Arsenal midfielder, 25. When you have that much of the ball, have a couple of clear-cut chances, and get beaten 1-0 at home just before the Euros it isn't ideal. There were a lot of promising performances, we played with a good tempo, always tried to play forward. We have to be a little bit more savvy," he told englandfootball.com. It's not ideal we lost but there are good learning curves we can build on as a team,” Rice said while speaking in the post-match press conference.
England are one of the favourites to win the Euro 2024 considering the wealth of talent they have at their disposal. The unit led by Harry Kane reached the finals in the last edition of the Euro before losing to Italy on penalties. While they want to go one better this timethey will have to avoid defeats to smaller teams during the build-up.
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The Three Lions on Thursday trimmed their squad down to 26 players which saw some notable absentees including James Madison, Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish. The squad is already without the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, but will now have to rely on the current unit to win the Euro 2024.
England will face Serbia in Group C next Sunday in their tournament opener as they look to start on the front foot. Southgate’s men will also face Denmark and Slovenia in their group and will look to advance if they clinch a place in the knockouts.