England vs Slovenia live updates (2024)

So, England have won Group C. Gareth Southgate’s team were underwhelming in their opening two games of Euro 2024 and there was little sign of a revolution tonight.

Conor Gallagher started but was taken off at half-time, before Kobbie Mainoo sparked a slightly improved display.

Slovenia are also through in third, missing out on second due to a lower position in the European qualifiers rankings compared to Denmark — that’s after the pair finished with an identical record and even the same number of yellow cards in three matches.

Danny Taylor, Oliver Kay, Mark Carey, Dan Sheldon and Will Jeanes analyse the key action from Cologne.

If it feels like England are struggling to create clear-cut chances at Euro 2024, then the numbers back it up.

England’s three matches at this European Championship have so far produced a total expected goals (xG) tally between the two sides involved of 3.39.

That is 2.26 for England, 1.13 for their opponents — and the lowest total across the tournament so far.

That might just stink the place out if the trend carries on deep into Euro 2024.

The start of something big for Kobbie Mainoo? Maybe. It will depend on how much Gareth Southgate trusts him in the last 16 — but trust him, he should.

Here’s what the Manchester United midfielder has been saying to ITV:

💬 “Me and Cole (Palmer), we’re ready for whenever we are called upon like any of the lads, and when we get our chance we try to impress. I love playing and anyone on the bench wants to get onto the pitch.

“They sat deep and they were good on the ball. But I feel we have the quality to break these teams down and as we go on to face better teams, I feel we can reach those levels.”

Group C at Euro 2024 — the quartet that truly keeps giving.

There’s some more history here. For the first time in European Championship history, both games in the last round of a group have ended in goalless draws.

And you know what? It felt pretty dull too. Thank goodness we got to enjoy Group D’s finale earlier too.

It was job done for captain Harry Kane tonight, in that England finished top of Group D. How much of that was helped by Denmark failing to beat Serbia? I’ll leave you to mull over that one.

Here’s what Kane said, moments after the final whistle:

💬 “That was the aim before the start of the tournament, come top of the group and control our destiny. I thought we played a lot better than the other games; we couldn’t just find that finish.

“The boys who came on did really well and kept the energy high. We need everyone chipping in and that’s what we are doing so far.

“We have been here before and stepped it up in the past when we got to the knockouts. It is going to be a difficult challenge ahead and we have enough ability to keep pushing.”

In fairness, it is a pretty decent silver lining at this point — providing England somehow find another big improvement in the last 16.

Here’s what John Stones had to say to ITV on the pitch at full-time:

💬 “I can understand some of the fans’ frustrations with us not scoring or taking chances, but we left everything out there and it’s never an easy game.

“We have to focus on what we can control and we have to be harsh with ourselves and where we could be better. It’s not the result we wanted but I’m so pleased we topped the group.”

Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo oozes calm and has seemed entirely unruffled during his breakthrough season at Old Trafford. He was key to that unlikely FA Cup final win over Manchester City and took his goal with aplomb.

England supporters have been calling out for his introduction at Euro 2024 and his team looked so much livelier once he entered the fray at half time.

One has to feel he will start the next game and help his team play more positively from the off. Here is a teenager entirely comfortable on the ball who is not daunted by the weight of expectation and that feels like exactly what England need at the moment.

While unbeaten, England can probably count themselves somewhat fortunate to have topped Group C with five points.

For reference, here is the breakdown of Euro 2024 group winners by points:

There is still one round of fixtures to play in Group E and Group F

• Group A: Germany – 7pts
• Group B: Spain – 9pts
• Group C: England – 5pts
• Group D: Austria – 6pts
• Group E leaders: Romania – 3pts (all four teams have three points with one match left)
• Group F leaders: Portugal – 6pts (one match left)

Well, they had a better second half that looked a bit more fluent — in that it couldn’t have been much less fluent than the first. As for the full-time numbers…

FT: England 0-0 Slovenia

• Possession: 74% — 26%
• Shots: 12 — 4
• On target: 4 — 1
• XG: 0.87 — 0.13
• Big chances: 1 — 0
• Blocked shots: 4 — 1
• Duels won: 26 — 33
• Dispossessed: 7 — 3

Slovenia dug in and they had to concentrate and focus against a lot of England possession. But for that amount of possession, the quality chances were clearly in short supply.

England won’t get very far unless they can find a sharper threat in the final third.

Ultimately Slovenia looked from the outset as though they would be more than happy with a draw. It can be difficult to break down a team with little to no attacking intent regardless of their quality, and perhaps Southgate’s side will welcome tougher opposition allowing some space to open up.

It is ludicrously glass half full reasoning but maybe England will look more dangerous when up against one of Europe’s big hitters.

The only other reason to be cheerful is that England have, improbably, topped the group after three poor performances and now find themselves on the favourable side of the draw.

Now some of the negatives:

• Trippier is just not quite good enough at left-back for England to make the latter stages
• Bellingham has contributed very little for two and a half games
• Kane is not getting any touches in the box
• The set pieces are rubbish
• Gallagher looked lost

I am willing to be a tiny bit more charitable than I was at half time and say that was unequivocally better than the Denmark performance.

Positives:

• Guehi excellent again apart from one breakdown in communication with Stones
• Rice back to doing his thing
• Foden bright
• Mainoo and Palmer made a difference
• Nice to see Alexander-Arnold at right-back and Anthony Gordon get a run out
• Kane looked fitter than previous two games

Five days is a long time in football. And it needs to be for Southgate and England.

Yes, they are going through as Group C winners and yes, we all remember worse England teams. But this group stage must have got the alarm bells ringing.

Feels like more changes will be needed ahead of the last-16 game, whoever that will be against.

There have been plenty of tournaments within living memory involving England supporters embarrassing themselves in front of a global audience. In Germany so far, despite being offered very little to enjoy on the pitch, the English fans have earned a little credit.

They did not stop singing tonight in spite of yet another lacklustre performance and there has been no sense of complacency after a few good tournaments in a row for their team. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that England fans in Germany would behave but the dark days seem to be behind them now.

That was always likely to happen. Southgate went to clap the fans. Many clapped back but also audible jeers - including two empty plastic glasses chucked on the pitch.

They land in front of him but he continues to applaud.

What to make of that then? Again, England look like a team of decent players that is out of form, unbalanced, dysfunctional and short on immediately solutions.

For Slovenia, they’ve just reached the last 16 for the first time in their history — and knocked out Croatia.

They were compact, competitive and determined too. Fair play to them.

It’s a short waiting game for the result in Munich, as they have been a little behind the one here in Cologne.

But the result comes through now. It’s finished Denmark 0-0 Serbia, and England have managed to win Group C — one of the dullest groups in European Championship history.

It’s over. England draw. Slovenia celebrate as if they’ve won. They basically have.