The Three Lions of England will be hoping to revenge their 2018 World Cup semifinal loss to Croatia as the two countries go for the broke in the opening Group B game of the Euro 2020 at the Wembley Stadium, London, tomorrow
The summer of 2018 was a good one for England as they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in 28 years. However, their journey was brought to an end by Croatia at the semi-finals, extending fans’ wait for football to come home.
Euro 2020 is another opportunity, and it’s a big one as the final is being held at Wembley – as it was in 1996 when David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds penned that famous song. Qualification for Euro 2020 was straightforward, with England winning seven and losing one of their eight games, only dropping points against Czech Republic when top spot had been secured.
Croatia were made to work harder for their qualification to Euro 2020 despite finishing top of Group E. Just five points separated Croatia and fourth-placed Hungary, with Wales and Slovakia sandwiched inbetween, and all four sides actually qualified for the tournament after the Nations League play-offs. It has been a strange period for Croatia post-2018 and their World Cup final appearance, as Zlatko Dalic’s side finished bottom of their Nations League group, only saved from relegation by a revamp. They then finished third in their next Nations League group, avoiding relegation thanks to their one superior goal difference over Sweden.
Meanwhile, Harry Kane has said the England side are still hurt by their defeat to Croatia in the 2018 World Cup Semi-final.
The Three Lions are preparing to face the Croatians tomorrow in their first game of Euro 2020 as they look for to make up for their mistakes three years ago.
Gareth Southgate’s team fought valiantly, but fell at the penultimate hurdle back in 2018 and Kane has admitted the loss is still on his mind ahead of Sunday’s clash.
Kane spoke to The Official England Podcast about the upcoming game and England’s heartbreak in Russia.
He said: “Of course it’s a game that hurts. It’s a game we wanted to win and we wanted to get to a World Cup final, but in football, it doesn’t always pan out how you want.
“We just fell short in that moment. But it’s a game for us in a big tournament and Croatia are a great side. We’ll be focused on their team and trying to stop their threats and we’ll try to get on the ball and create chances.
“It’s the first game of a major tournament and that’s the most important thing is to look forward and just try to beat them on the day and get off to a good start.”
The England captain picked up the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup and despite being hungry to get the award again this summer he seemed to have his priorities straight ahead of the tournament.
He said: “Of course, I’d love to win another Golden Boot. More importantly, I’d love to be lifting that European Cup.
“Whatever way we get there, whether it’s me scoring or others, it doesn’t bother me as long as we are winning games, that’s all I care about.”
England have already had changes to their squad with Brighton defender Ben White coming in for injured Trent Alexander-Arnold with less than a week until they welcome Luka Modric and Co to Wembley.
Kane is one of the few members of the squad that has been fit and available for both warm-up friendlies, but Southgate chose to rest the talisman against Romania, opting to keep the striker fit for the upcoming busy schedule.
Five years on from their magical run to the European Championship semi-finals, Wales begin their Euro 2020 adventure with a showdown against Switzerland in Baku today. Both sides have ambitions of reaching at least the first knockout round in the pan-European competition, but Group A is arguably the most competitive of the lot.
Just eight members of Wales’s squad from the last European Championship finals remain, and not all are at the same level.
However, as showed during their qualifying campaign, when putting together a five-game unbeaten run to finish runners-up to Croatia, Wales remain a relative force.
The Dragons are effectively battling with Switzerland and Turkey for second place behind in-form Italy in Group A, and they can take confidence from recent results.
Wales have defeated a lot of similarly-ranked nations over the past year or so, including in the Nations League when finishing top to earn promotion to the top tier.
Losing their manager, Ryan Giggs, due to an impending court case is far from ideal, of course, but Rob Page has ensured a seamless transition in his seven months in interim charge. There were positives to take from the 3-0 loss to France last week, as strange as that may sound on the face of it, though the less said about the 0-0 draw with Albania the better.
Wales do not qualify for major tournaments all that often, but when they do they tend to leave their mark, reaching the quarter-finals in the 1958 World Cup and semis at Euro 2016.
That has not really been the case for Switzerland at this tournament, having been eliminated at the group stage three times before a last-16 exit to Poland five years ago.
La Nati will be confident of sealing a best-ever finish this time around, particularly if their recent form is anything to go by.
They have won six games in a row and held Spain to a 1-1 draw ahead of that run, which stretches back to last November.
Indeed, only 12 nations in the entire world are currently ranked higher than the Swiss, so falling short at the group stage again would be a major disappointment.
With a number of talented players in their ranks, this may just be the year that Switzerland get it right at a major tournament.
