WATCH: Is this Bleary-eyed England fan's hilarious 4am stadium video the ultimate criticism of Gareth Southgate tactics?

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England got off to a winning start at Euro 2024, but the 1-0 win over Serbia failed to get the collective pulses going

A general view inside the stadium as the roof is seen closed prior to the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Serbia and England at Arena AufSchalke on June 16, 2024 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany with an inset picture of a hungover England fan
An England fan appears to have fallen asleep inside the stadium and gone undetected (Image credit: Future)

England may have got their Euro 2024 campaign off to a winning start on Sunday night, but the 1-0 victory over Serbia was one for the purists. 

It all started well, with England fizzing the ball around for the opening 20 or so minutes, as the omnipresent Jude Bellingham buzzed around the pitch and put Gareth Southgate’s men 1-0 up. 

But then it all got somewhat flat. As Harry Kane toiled in the centre circle and England’s main supply line on the right-hand side dried, the Serbs’ effective pressing threatened to peg the Three Lions back. 

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England would hold on, but the manner of the victory saw some familiar criticism of Southgate’s penchant for the kind of safety-first football we’ve seen in previous tournaments.

The win came at the end of a long weekend of football-watching, so perhaps you could be forgiven if your eyelids became heavy during that second half of Three Lions toil and attrition.

And it would appear that this was the case for one England fan who was actually present in the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, as he woke up at 4am, hours after the game had finished.

The bleary-eyed supporter uploaded a video to TikTok, looking the worse for wear sitting on one of the back rows of a deserted Veltins-Arena.

“I’ve just woken up. It’s four o’clock in the morning,” he mumbles before turning the camera around to show the thousands of empty seats across the stadium after seeming to evade the stewards all night.

Here’s hoping that England’s performance against Denmark on Thursday afternoon is enough to keep each and every fan in Frankfurt awake.

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Joe Mewis
Joe Mewis

For more than a decade Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor, with stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others. He is the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team.