England vs Iceland: Live score, team news and updates as Cole Palmer and Kobbie Mainoo START for the Three Lions… with Bukayo Saka on the bench again ahead of Euro 2024
Marc Guehi wild turnaround
Lewis Steele, Mail Sport:
Marc Guehi was 2/1 to start first game of the Euros four days ago btw
The Crystal Palace defender looked likely to miss the tournament having been sidleined with a knee injury for the majority of the second-half of the season.
Monday’s 3-0 win over Bosnia was actually Guehi’s second start since March. But here he is. The injury to Maguire means that he will be partnering Stones in defence for that first game against Serbia.
Players are out onto the pitch
Players are out onto the pitch and the warm-ups are underway. We’re only 30 minutes away from kick-off at Wembley.
Southgate not afraid to pick players from unfancied sides
The headline after Southgate’s squad was confirmed – after we had got over the Grealish axing – was the revelation that Crystal Palace were the best represented team in the England team.
In fact, this squad has the lowest percentage of top six players in 32 YEARS!
Rooney says ‘time will tell’ whether Southgate was right to announce squad before tonight’s game
Wayne Rooney, Channel 4:
Time will tell. Normally you’d wait until afer the game to confirm the squad because there might be injuries. But I think Gareth has taken any doubt away. It’s an exciting team and England are right up there.
A peak inside the dressing room
To satisfy your cravings for jersey hung up on a wall, here are some of the big hitters who will be taking the field in less than a hour.
Drink it in!
The Wembley send-off
Fans are pouring into the national stadium for the final England game before the Euros gets underway. Will they be leaving full of even more hope and optimism? Is that possible?
Hopes of a quieter night at Wembley
It was the hottest ticket in town. The face value of an official UEFA Champions League final ticket last weekend ranged from £60 to £610 but online and on the black market, they were selling for thousands of pounds.
A quick scroll through Live Football Tickets – a popular secondary ticket website – in the hours before kick-off showed a going rate of around £4,000 and these were for upper-tier seats. Some of the lower-tier seats were selling for close to £10,000.
CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE
How I got into the Champions League final WITHOUT a ticket
Iceland coach looks ahead to ‘dream’ Wembley showdown
Age Hareide, Iceland manager:
It’s always bad to lose players. But we have to talk about the players who are there. We have a lot of talent here.I think it’s every player’s dream — and it was mine as well in 1980 — to play against England at Wembley.
Southgate explains why selection news came ahead of deadline
Gareth Southgate, England manager:
I didn’t want to keep the players waiting until Friday. I think that would have been a mess, really‘It wouldn’t have been fair on the players that we’ve released, wouldn’t have been fair on the players that were waiting to have confirmation that they were in.‘Inevitably, we knew when we named a 33 there would be a period of a nice prep camp, and then there was going to be a couple of days where there would be a lot of anxiety and a difficult couple of days for us all.‘But we’ll close that down later tonight and now tomorrow everybody’s heads are clear.’
Breaking:Iceland team news
And here are England’s opponents for tonight’s game. Iceland include Burnley midfielder Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson in their ranks.
Breaking:England team news
Surprise, surprise. Southgate has pulled a couple of interesting selections. Mainoo starts beside Rice in the base of England’s midfield. Palmer keeps hi splace in the starting XI presumably as a stand in for Bellingham in the No 10 position.
Foden starts, Gordon starts, so there’s no Saka. And Ramsdale gets the nod in goal.
Euros fever in full swing
You know that point when the upcoming international tournament no longer feels ages away and you think “Oh, jeez, it’s here! And we’re going to win!”
Yeah that happened for me after I saw this absolute gem of a video…
Any chance Cole Palmer could force his way in?
At times last season it appeared that the former Manchester City forward was single-handedly keeping Chelsea in the top-flight. I kid, only a little.
Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe had more goal involvements. But unfortunately for the uber confident youngster there are a number of very qualified players ahead of him in the England pecking order.
Can he impress enough to force his way into the starting side or should he just be thrilled to be here?
History repeating itself
Cast your mind back to the summer of 2004. England, fit with an exciting young talent, faced Iceland in their pre-tournament send-off.
The Three Lions battered their opponents 6-1 at the Etihad with Wayne Rooney bagging himself a brace.
He of course went on to set Euro 2004 alight and might have led England all the way to the trophy if it wasn’t for that pesky injury in the quarter-final defeat by Portgual.
Lions are in the house
Here are the troops walking out onto the Wembley turf for tonight’s game against…Iceland. We’re over the whole Iceland thing now, right? Right?
A little audition for Mainoo
Speaking of the Man United midfielder, his absence from Monday’s win over Bosnia – due to starring in the FA Cup final – opened the door for a couple of players to gain some attention.
Such is the talent in this England squad, you could argue that Gallagher, Alexander-Arnold and Wharton all made decent cases to start alongside Declan Rice next week.
If Mainoon gets the start today you can assume that he’s in the box seat but he’ll need to make sure his performance is top notch. Going off his performances in the Premier League last season, there’s no reason to assume he won’t do just that.
Will tonight’s line-up start the Euros?
Many are predicting that Southgate will use this fixture – the first half at least – as a dress rehersal for England’s tournament opener against Serbia on June 16.
Makes total sense. This is the last chanve he’ll get to see his team in a somewhat competitive enviornment and there are still so many question marks over the defence and midfield.
Mainoo or Gallagher? Is Guehi really good enough to replace Maguire and will it Foden on the left, right or somewhere else entirely. Oh, and don’t forget about Cole Palmer.
The Man United and Man City contingent are back involved tonight but Jude Bellingham is still enjoying a mini holiday after winning the Champions League…It’s a fair excuse I suppose.
The unlucky seven
There’s only one place to start and it’s with the seven unfortunate players who were cut from the provisional 33-man squad on Thursday. News started coming through early in the day that James Maddison, Jarrel Quansah and Curtis Jones had been told they wouldn’t go.
Then came the kicker that Harry Maguire didn’t make it because of injury and then the shock of Jack Grealish’s omission.
CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE
Gareth Southgate CONFIRMS England’s Euro 2024 squad
The final countdown
Good evening and welcome to Mail Sport’s coverage of England’s final pre-tournament friendly against Iceland at Wembley.
It’s fair to say it’s been a pretty eventufl few days in the camp. The week began with a confident win over Bosnia at St James Park and quickly became peak ‘judges houses’ on X Factor.
Here we are, just a week away from the beginning of the Euros and Southgate’s final squad has been announced and there’s only one more chance to get the on-pitch harmony up before Germany.
We’ll be bringing you all the news and updates ahead of kick-off at 7:45pm. And then make sure you stay with us for our coverage of the match!
More Details: Read More
