- England drew goalless, but still managed to lead their group.
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Harry Kane and John Stones have defended England’s performance, which drew goalless against Slovenia in their final Euro 2024 group stage match.
Gareth Southgate’s side produced another lukewarm performance at the Cologne Stadium on Tuesday night, and for much of the match failed to improve on their performance against Denmark, which drew heavy criticism.
Despite this, the Three Lions were still able to take first place in Group C after the Danes and Serbia drew 0-0 in the other match. Senior England players Kane and Stones focused on the team achieving their main objective in the post-match comments.
And the pair insisted the team is on the right track ahead of the knockout rounds of the competition.
“That was the goal before the start of the tournament: to finish first in the group and control our own destiny.” Kane told ITV. “Tonight was a difficult game, we played much better than the other two games. We played with a lot of energy, better with the ball, but we couldn’t find the final ball or finish.
England produced another dull performance on Tuesday as they were held to a goalless draw against Serbia.
Harry Kane defended the team’s performance, which he believes was an improvement on their previous outings.
“We recovered well, enjoyed finishing first in the group and then look forward to the next one.”
“We’ve been here before, we’ve been to the round of 16 and we’ve stepped up our efforts in previous tournaments.” added the England captain. ‘Hopefully we can do the same. Whoever we get next, it’s going to be a tough game. Extra time or penalties may be necessary, but that is the reality of this tournament.
“It’s going to be a difficult task ahead, but we have enough capacity in the team to keep pushing.” “Now we’re just looking forward to the next round.”
For the match, Southgate made one change to the team, with Conor Gallagher replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, but the Chelsea player only lasted half an hour before being replaced by Mainoo.
Fans praised the Manchester United youngster’s impact, while Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon gave the manager something to think about ahead of the next round.
England will meet their round of 16 opponent on Wednesday, which will be the Netherlands or any of the four teams in Group E, including Romania, Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Their fortuitous position in the draw now places them on the opposite side of the draw against the tournament’s heavy hitters such as France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
England’s next match will take place in Gelsenkirchen, where they began their campaign with a 1-0 victory over Serbia last Sunday.
Manchester United youngster Kobbie Mainoo impressed after coming off the bench in the second half.
John Stones said the Three Lions must focus on themselves and insisted the team had taken a step in the right direction.
“We have to focus on ourselves and what we can control and that is being hard on ourselves over the next few days about the game and what we could have done better.” Stones said after the game.
“But I feel like we took a step in the right direction, not the result we wanted, but I’m very happy to have led the group.” ‘