England 1-1 Denmark
I watched Serbia-Slovenia draw in the day's first match, but I was quite sure the England vs Denmark game would have a clear winner. And it seemed I was right. England started the game OK, going for the attack and had a few important chances before Kane managed to score the first goal before the twentieth minute. And then just as against Serbia, it seems they just gave out. After the goal, Denmark controlled the ball and were able to score the draw from a long shot by Hjulmand. What remained of the first half was all Denmark, seems England fell asleep.
The second half promised to be livelier I expected England to attack from the start. This did not happen, even though unlike the second part of the first half England were able to have more control of the ball, and it was an even half. I think the one positive thing that came out of this game is that England has virtually made it to the next round, even if it is only as one of the best third places. Even though I do think against Slovenia we should see a better England.
What is happening? England has some great players, but they seem to not be quite at their best level. I do understand the EPL is a very challenging league and all of these players have put in a lot of hard minutes this season. But some of the player's level is at a low point. I see Bellingham and Saka looking kind of tired, Rice was absent from the game today and Arnold also did not look at his best. Foden made some bad decisions today. In general the whole team looked lackluster. Of course one of the things happening is that the expectations for this England team are very high but on the field they haven't looked the part. But, this is football, Italy won the 1982 World Cup after drawing all three of their first games and making it through on one more goal than Cameroon, so maybe England improves exponentially from here on. They do have the players, right now it's just their game that is not so good.
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Out of our attacking players, I thought Foden was the player most likely to make something happen. It felt like he saw that his teammates weren't up to the challenge and tried to drag the team through... which he nearly did when he hit the post.
Our media have talked about the possibility of tiredness - they've had a long season, competing in multiple competitions and almost the entire squad has played 50 matches at a consistently high intensity. I can understand that being the reason whereas our "lower ranked" opponents will have played nearly half that and will be fresher physically and mentally.
If it is tiredness, this will only get worse in future seasons with FIFA trying to profit with even more tournaments.
But... we've got a squad of players that are good enough to win these games - we don't need to flog the same XI every match. I think we'll see a lot of changes for the game against Slovenia and a more energetic performance as a result. Unless of course, the players have stopped playing for Southgate - an alternative suggestion which also feels plausible.