Former England striker Alan Shearer could not hide his outrage as England put in a substandard performance to squander their Euro 2024 lead against Denmark, prompting commentator Guy Mowbray to comment: “I don’t know tonight whether to buy you a drink, give you a hug, or buy you some blood pressure tablets.”
Gareth Southgate’s side had gone ahead early on in the game but, like against Serbia in the opening game, England immediately looked a far worse side and allowed Denmark to start taking the game to them.
Several promising phases of play petered out into nothing, prompting Southgate to replace first Trent Alexander-Arnold with Conor Gallagher in midfield soon after the break, and then make a triple substitution to replace his front three of Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka with Ollie Watkins, Eberechi Eze and Jarrod Bowen midway through the second half.
VIDEO Alan Shearer Explains How England Could Have Won The Euros
Alan Shearer: "Gareth Southgate will be asked serious questions"
BBC pundit Shearer was increasingly scathing of the performance as it became increasingly apparent that the lead was not going to be restored, with England’s efforts both on and off the ball coming in for criticism.
He said after one Danish counter-attack: “Once they’ve (England) gone to press…Bellingham pressed, Watkins pressed, but the midfield are starting 20 yards behind them, and that [says] to me they just haven’t worked on the press at all.
“If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it all together. You can’t do it in twos or threes because you’ll get picked off, especially at this level.”
Shearer added: “You can talk about the energy and the pressure and everything else: their passing still hasn’t been good enough either. There’s been far too many passes gone astray, simply passes. Don’t look at me and say the pitch is bobbly.”
As the game drew towards a close, Shearer wrapped up: “It’s been an awful performance, especially after going up in the game … I’m not sure there’s one England player who I can look at and say ‘yeah, they’ve been on it tonight’. They haven’t. Caught on the ball, too many sloppy passes, certainly not enough energy.
“We were looking for an improvement from the first game and it’s been worse … [Southgate] will get asked serious questions and he’ll understand that when you look at the players out there.”
A good bit of alertness from Kyle Walker to beat the much-too-relaxed Victor Kristiansen to an overhit through ball teed up Kane to put Gareth Southgate’s side ahead 18 minutes in, with the Bayern Munich striker equalling the England record for most goals at consecutive tournaments in the process.
But unlike against Serbia in the opening game, England did not get away with inviting pressure on themselves after taking the lead as Morten Hjulmand struck an out-bending effort in off the post from 25 yards.
Nonetheless, England are in a strong position to qualify from their group after four points from their first two games ahead of facing Slovenia on Tuesday night.
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