England were beaten 1-0 by Iceland in their final warm-up game ahead of Euro 2024. With Gareth Southgate naming his 26-man squad on Thursday there was a feeling of anticipation ahead of the clash at Wembley to see what the Three Lions’ younger players could produce.
The answer wasn’t much. Cole Palmer, starting on the right side alongside Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon, was a livewire in the early stages but Iceland were the ones to open the scoring. A sharp move from Hakon Arnar Haraldsson in midfield saw the ball slipped through to Jon Thorsteinsson who cut inside and drilled a low shot through the legs of John Stones to beat second-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at the near post.
That goal shocked Wembley and England who looked to respond. Harry Kane fired over the bar, Phil Foden slotted an effort wide and Palmer messed up a one-on-one. There was a lack of ruthlessness and creativity in the final third.
Gareth Southgate’s men head to Germany on the back of a defeat which he’ll hope will spur them on to better things come the start of the tournament.
Relive the action below:
England’s flaws on full display as Wembley defeat sours Euro 2024 departure
It was a defeat to Iceland that ended a dismal Euros campaign to essentially start the Gareth Southgate era and… well, you can fill in the rest. The manager must concentrate on filling in the many gaps in this surprisingly callow team before the Euro 2024 first game against Serbia on Sunday week, and maybe a bit more. A strange history was made with the 1-0 defeat to Iceland at Wembley on Friday, that doesn’t necessarily augur that well for the month ahead. England lost the last game before a full tournament for just the second time in their history, and the first since 1954.
That was a famous 7-1 defeat to Hungary, which illustrates just what a different era it was. The very fact that many victorious send-offs since produced some bad tournaments means that little enough should be read into such results, and it’s not like there will be wails of protest in the manner we’ve seen in the past.
There were some boos, though, and they accompany what is a genuine question for Southgate ahead of what is presumed to be his last campaign.
England have commonly been seen as maybe the favourites for Euro 2024 due to the way a deep squad has grown in talent and experience over eight years. Now, just as they’re at the brink, Southgate has stripped away so many of those stalwarts to introduce a lot of relatively untried players who have never played together before.
Mike Jones7 June 2024 22:05
Here’s the replay of Iceland’s goal, with some great work by Thorsteinsson.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 22:05
FT: England 0-1 Iceland
Anthony Gordon was first in front of the Channel 4 cameras.
He says that “a bit of a lack of quality in the final third let us down” on the evening.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted but it’s the bigger picture.
“It’s great practice for us, that’s probably how teams are going to play against us, so the more we play against teams like that and learn to break them down the better.”
When asked if he thinks he may have played his way into the starting eleven, he said: “I hope so. That’s the first time I’ve kicked a ball really for four weeks so I just wanted to run to go into the tournament feeling fit and feeling fresh.”
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:55
FT: England 0-1 Iceland
So, a famous Wembley win for Iceland to go with their even more famous win against the Three Lions at Euro 2016.
Not a good game for Southgate at all, by any stretch. England were simply disjointed, lacking any sort of cohesion in attack, and were weak in defence when it mattered.
It’ll be different come the opening game on 16 June, when there’s something important on the line, but that was not a performance that will fill any England fan with confidence.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:41
FULL-TIME! England 0-1 Iceland
95 mins: FULL-TIME! Mainoo wins the ball back and threads it through to Toney, who is brought down. Maybe one more chance for England?
It’s not to be, as the referee blows the final whistle and Iceland have their first ever win at Wembley!
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:38
England 0-1 Iceland
94 mins: Eze plays in a cross that is narrowly taken off the head of Saka at the back post. England recycle possession and it comes to Alexander-Arnold on the edge of the box. He drives in and hits the cross across goal, and it’s deflected behind for a corner.
Gomez hits it wide in what may well be the last meaningful action of the game.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:37
England 0-1 Iceland
92 mins: Not a bad idea from Alexander-Arnold to try and feed in Saka, but the Arsenal man misjudges the pass.
Iceland bring on Lunddal Fridriksson for Thorsteinsson.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:35
England 0-1 Iceland
91 mins: A nice idea from Rice as he hooks a ball through to Saka, but the Arsenal man was offside just before Mainoo half-volleyed a shot wide.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:34
England 0-1 Iceland
90 mins: There’ll be five minutes added on. Five minutes for England to salvage result in a home friendly against Iceland.
Alexander-Arnold fizzes in a cross but it’s cleared.
Chris Wilson7 June 2024 21:33