England will hope to start their Euro’s campaign strong as they face Serbia in Gelsenkirchen.
Despite their defeat to Iceland in their last friendly game, Southgate’s side has been touted as one of the favourites to win this year’s Euros.
Serbia will be England’s first opponents in Group C, who finished 2nd in the qualifiers behind Hungary. Like England, Serbia’s last two games before this summer’s competition had mixed results, losing 2-1 to Austria and cruising through Sweden to beat them 3-0 last Saturday.
Dragan Stojkovic’s side should not be underestimated as they boast a talented squad including key players such as former Southampton and Ajax star Dusan Tadic and Sergej Milinković-Savić. They also have plenty of options up front with Dusan Vlahovic, Aleksander Mitrovic and Luka Jovic all available for the Eagles.
Fortunately for the Three Lions, John Stones and Jude Bellingham will be available to start for England which will be a massive boost to the team. Whilst Luke Saw has made good progress in his fitness over the past week, this game will come too soon for Shaw to start. As such, Kieran Trippier will be the favoured candidate to start at left-back with Kyle Walker slotting in on the opposite flank. Marc Guehi seems to be the preferred option to partner Stones in the defence ahead of England’s undisputed No.1 Jordan Pickford.
Tonight’s game could be another opportunity for Trent Alexander-Arnold to continue playing in the midfield for England alongside Bellingham and Declan Rice. Harry Kane will captain the side with Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden most likely to support him in attack despite Southgate’s recent use of Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon.
England predicted XI: Pickford, Trippier, Stones, Guehi, Walker, Rice, Alexander-Arnold, Bellingham, Saka, Kane (C), Foden.
Serbia predicted XI: Milinkovic-Savic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic, Velijkovic, Kostic, Zivkovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Lukic, Tadic (C), Vlahovic, Mitrovic
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