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It was a familiar story for Gareth Southgate’s England in their second game at Euro 2024, as they took the lead against Denmark before dropping deep and allowing their opponents back into the game.
The result means England are top of Group C going into the final round of matches, when they Slovenia. Denmark are second with two points, and play Serbia.
Our own Jack Pitt-Brooke, Mark Carey, Dan Sheldon and James McNicholas analyse the key talking points from Frankfurt.
GO FURTHER
England 1 Denmark 1: Kane scores but struggles, England drop deep, Hjulmand wonder goal
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Of course, it’s not just footballers who are English sports stars (obviously). There are also a few elsewhere — like in Formula One.
Our F1 correspondent and all-round good guy Luke Smith spoke to Mercedes driver George Russell in Barcelona today ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, about Euro 2024. This is what Russell said:
💬 “I think England can win it, for sure! Watching the games and what those guys go through is incredible.
“It's pretty tough when you have a championship like the Euros, every single game counts and in that sport, anybody can get a victory on their best day.
“I think we have a really great squad at the moment and Gareth (Southgate) is a great coach. They seem to be headed in a really great direction, so fingers crossed they go out there and do their best.”
The caveat being, these quotes are from before that England performance today. Give Luke a follow and you might find out if Russell has since changed his mind…
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Speaking of the Denmark forward, here’s how Christian Eriksen he viewed their draw with England — again, speaking to BBC Sport:
💬 “I do think if a team was to win today, it was supposed to be us. We didn’t get it, but it was better than our last game.
“We know England have exceptional players but we hurt them with our chances and should’ve won.
“I don’t think they dropped deep. It was just the same game before. It was even, they lost the ball a few times and we tried to hurt them on the counter. They did the same against us.
“We still have a game to go. We need a win against Serbia; there’s nothing else for us. This was good progress but we have to take the belief from this into that and get the three points.”
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Ah yes, Christian Eriksen. Not only is he 32 years and 127 days old today. He also created four chances against England — as many as he did in the opening game against Slovenia.
Put it all together and you have the oldest player with at least four chances created in consecutive European Championship games, since a 33-year-old Andrea Pirlo in 2012.
Great work from Opta there.
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So what did England boss Gareth Southgate say after the game about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s role and Harry Kane’s situation? Here’s what he told BBC Sport just now — starting with the former:
💬 “We wanted to get Conor (Gallagher) on. We needed some energy and to press better. Conor obviously does that very well.
“Trent has had some moments where he’s delivered what we thought he would. We know it is an experiment and we know we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips, so we're trying some different things and at the moment we're not flowing as we’d like, that’s for sure.”
As for his thoughts on Harry Kane…
💬 “We needed energy. We’ve had two games in a short turnaround and we needed fresh legs to press. At that stage, I think Harry’s only had one 90 minutes in over a month, and that was the decision we took.”
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What a conundrum the situation is with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Today felt like further evidence — bar the odd promising moment — that playing the Liverpool star in a midfield role isn’t working.
The fact Gareth Southgate continues to call it an experiment is revealing in itself. Should you be experimenting in your first two group games of a tournament you hope and expect to reach the latter stages?
And on the other side of the coin, today he played more chances for England than anyone else and also played the most line-breaking passes in the final third. All despite being withdrawn after 54 minutes.
The experiment continues. Probably.
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Harry Kane wasn’t asked about his own fitness by BBC Sport immediately after the game, but he did address some of the accusations over England deliberately dropping to protect their lead — rather than continuing to look for goals:
💬 “We're struggling with and without the ball, so we have to go away and look at it back. The pressure in both games hasn't been quite right, and also with the ball we haven't been good enough. Everyone dropping below their level a bit in retaining the ball and playing under pressure.
“We are starting games well. I think in general when teams are dropping a few players deeper, we're not sure how to get the pressure on and who's the one supposed to be going.
“Second half, we tried to change it with me and Jude (Bellingham) playing in front of their two midfielders and then trying to get up, but it was difficult.”
The theory of this England team makes no sense.
Three attackers who want to be the No 10, one(ish) runner in behind, a right-back at right-back who can’t attack, a right-back at left-back who needs to cut inside, and a right-back in defensive midfield whose strength is hitting all those wide and long runners you don’t have… 🤦🏻♂️
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One more regarding Harry Kane. Gareth Southgate has learned about trying to protect Kane during a tournament, making sure he doesn't always play 90 minutes in the group games to keep him sharp for the knock-outs.
He actually studied how France protected Griezmann during the 2018 World Cup.
So at the following World Cup, Kane was hooked on 76 minutes against Iran and then 58 minutes versus Wales, both times for Callum Wilson.
Then in Euro 2020, Kane came off against Croatia after 82 minutes (for Jude Bellingham), and 74 minutes versus Scotland (for Marcus Rashford).
Well, the angst runs deep for England supporters after that, while Denmark will feel it’s a missed opportunity. Here are the numbers from the 90 minutes…
FT: Denmark 1-1 England
Again, it was pretty tight and even looking at all that. Maybe this time, the numbers are slightly soothing compared to the actual action.
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Kyle Walker was the first to speak after that England draw, immediately on the pitch to BBC Sport — and it’s fair to say he was keeping it light:
💬 “It’s tournament football. This is a good Denmark team, we’re top of the group, so let’s a positive from the game. We didn’t lose. We concede a great strike from outside the box and sometimes you have to take your hat off to good goals.
“The manager has expressed he wants us to play free attacking football. Sometimes in tournaments you have to manage the game. It’s why it’s so hard to win them.
“We know we can do better. As individuals, as a team, we know we’ve got another gear. Everyone wants us to steamroll teams but that’s not football these days. We’ve got a point and we’ll move on.”
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The official player of the match? That’s been handed to Tottenham and Denmark midfielder, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg.
Great shout, that. Hojbjerg was secure defensively, often keen to step up in attack — and took more shots (5) than anyone else on the pitch.
Great work, Pierre.
Group C will be resolved on Sunday night (in Europe), with this pair of matches:
The two games will kick-off simultaneously too — and of course, we will have live coverage of it all here on The Athletic.
uefa.com
So, England are top of the group with four points from two games. In fact, you look at the table and Denmark should see it as a real missed opportunity.
Game on for the three teams below England for qualification.
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The stats suggest Denmark shaded that but it felt much more one-sided in the stadium — and not just because Denmark's fans massively out-sang England's, despite being outnumbered three to one.
The Danes are all still here too, and their team is on the pitch. England's players are chasing England's fans to exits.
A couple of stats do jump out, though. England dribbled the ball 18 times, Denmark six.
And the Danes won twice as many tackles.
One more. Because the last two non-league efforts are still fresh in the memory: England had 17 free-kicks to Denmark's five.
Awful.
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Agree that the result is survivable but the performance is as bad as we've seen from a Southgate England team in a major tournament.
So many big questions: Kane's role, the defence dropping deep, the lack of control in midfield. Don't think Alexander-Arnold is the answer, not sure Gallagher is either.
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There were some boos from the England fans here at full-time.
The result is far from disastrous, but again the performance was troubling from an England perspective. There were things that just didn't look right from a technical/tactical perspective.
But my biggest concern with that performance is how lethargic and flat so many of the players looked. A number of them looked dead on their feet at the final whistle.
On the flipside, that was an excellent performance after a tricky opening 20 minutes from Denmark.
And yet, they couldn’t force the issue enough to win it and now they’re stuck with a couple of draws.
Arguably, this result will get better for England the longer they get to sleep on it (and forget about the actual performance).
That England performance was significantly short of their opening win over Serbia — and given the narrative surrounding that effort, England will be in for a bit of criticism after that.
Must admit, I’m struggling to think of one good individual performance in a white shirt.
And that is it. Another draw for Denmark.
The start of another inquest into England.
