Gelsenkirchen (dpa)
England’s Euro 2016 campaign against Slovakia will be a make or break for the team, with Gareth Southgate’s side heading into Sunday’s clash amid heavy criticism of their group stage form.
The English team qualified for the round of sixteen, after topping Group 3 with five points, collected from a 1-0 win over Serbia, a 1-1 draw with Denmark, and a goalless draw with Slovenia.
Despite topping the group, the team was not immune to criticism, as it scored only two goals in the group stage. Compared to the other candidates to win the title, such as the host country Germany (scored 8 goals), Spain (scored 5 goals) and Portugal (5 goals), the team failed to convince its fans and supporters of its ability to compete for the title.
The English national team includes many stars, led by Real Madrid player Jude Bellingham, who won the league and Champions League titles in his first season with Spanish Real Madrid. He also scored England’s goal in the first match against Serbia, and star Harry Kane, the team’s captain and Bayern’s top scorer, is present. German Munich, along with young names such as Bukayo Saka, Arsenal player, Manchester City winger Phil Foden, Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice, and names participating for the first time with the national team, such as Chelsea striker Cole Palmer, Newcastle player Anthony Gordon, and others.
Gareth Southgate has been widely criticised for his team’s performance in the tournament, particularly for his lack of consistency in midfield, with Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold playing alongside Rice and Bellingham in midfield, an experiment that did not work against Serbia. Southgate then relied on Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher, which led to Arnold’s poor performance in the third match against Slovenia, with the coach taking responsibility for the poor performance of some players, most notably Arnold.
Due to the team’s performance in the group stage, British newspapers and media outlets have reminded fans of Southgate’s exclusion of some names such as Jack Grealish, Manchester City winger, and Marcus Rashford, Manchester United striker, as an indication of the coach’s confusion in his choices for the tournament, which the English team aims to win for the first time in its history.
In addition to the team’s poor performance, the English fear a repeat of past scenarios, as the team went through a similar stage in the 2016 edition in France under the leadership of Roy Hodgson, when it exited in the round of sixteen.
The surprise at the time was the exit of the English team at the hands of Iceland, which was participating for the first time in its history, a factor that the Slovak team and its Italian coach Francesco Calzona will try to work on during the match. The Slovak team achieved qualification to the round of sixteen for the second time in its history, after finishing third in Group Five in the tournament.
The team started their campaign with a surprise 1-0 win over title contenders Belgium, before suffering a 2-1 defeat to Ukraine, but a 1-1 draw with Romania secured qualification to the round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams in the group.
Slavia Prague striker Ivan Skranz scored twice for the team in the tournament, one against Belgium and one against Ukraine, while Hellas Verona midfielder Ondrej Duda scored against Romania in the final match. Calzona, 55, took over in 2022 and led the team to qualify for the tournament finals, in addition to a short stint at the end of last season as Napoli coach before officially hiring Antonio Conte to lead the team starting next season.
The two teams previously met in the 2016 edition in France, where the match ended in a goalless draw, before they were eliminated in the round of 16, with England losing heavily to Iceland and Slovakia losing to Germany 3-0. The Slovak team is counting on many of the players in its ranks in addition to Skranz and Duda, with the names of defender Milan Skriniar, a player for Paris Saint-Germain, Martin Dubravka, the goalkeeper for Newcastle United, and Stanislav Lobotka, the midfielder for Napoli.
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