England’s preparations for Euro 2024 go up a notch this week when they take on Bosnia & Herzegovina and Iceland in the two warm-up matches.
The two games will give Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate a final chance to run the rule over his provisional 33-man squad as he prepares to make the final cuts before submitting his 26-man tournament selection.
But as well as presenting a final chance for the squad’s fringe players to stake their case for Euro 2024, the two opponents have been selected for a very specific reason.
That is because England traditionally pick their pre-tournament friendlies with one eye on what will follow that summer. Specifically, the Three Lions’ friendly opponents will be neighbours (or thereabouts) of teams they are about to face in the upcoming tournament.
Monday’s opponents Bosnia & Herzegovina share a border with Serbia, who England take on in their Euro 2024 opener on June 16.
While Iceland obviously doesn’t share any land borders with any other state, England play Denmark in their second Group C, which is why they are Friday’s opponents.
Going back to Euro 2020, England warmed up with friendlies against Austria and Romania, who are in the vicinity of their group stage opponents Czech Republic and Croatia.
It’s also the same in World Cup years. The scheduling of the winter World Cup in 2022 meant no pre-tournament friendlies were played, but 2018 saw England warm up for their group-stage matches against Tunisia and Panama with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica.
So the scheduling of England’s two friendlies this week is no coincidence, with Southgate no doubt hoping that his side will be able to learn something about the footballing cultures of this summer’s Euro 2024 opponents in the coming days.
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