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Three Lions head coach Gareth Southgate expressed disappointment following his team's defeat to Iceland in their EURO 2024 preparatory friendly.
England head coach Gareth Southgate accused his team of lacking character following their European Championship preparatory friendly against Iceland.
England were between 1-0 by Age Hareide’s side after failing to muster a reply in over 78 minutes of play following Jon Dagur Borsteinsson’s early strike in the 12th minute of proceedings.
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12:39 - 07.06.2024
France, England, Germany not better than them — Jose Mourinho makes bold Euro 2024 prediction
Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho made a pre-tournament assessment of the favourites for the coming European Championships.
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What Southgate said
Angered by the result, the former Middlesbrough manager accused his Three Lions squad of lacking character. He highlighted their shortcomings off the ball and missing key players from the team, but stated that there were no excuses for the result and that his team would be ready come kick off in Germany.
"It was obviously a disjointed and disappointing performance and we didn't show enough character but I think it's good for us before an international tournament," Southgate told the BBC.
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"I think we've got to be better without the ball. I think that there were a lot of reasons for that and across the two games, we probably haven't had our full side out across any two games. We've been able to look at people, we've been able to learn about the balance of the team.
"I've been involved in a lot of last matches leading into a tournament. Inevitably, players have one eye on what's coming in terms of early challenges. No excuses on the result but there are a lot of things we can do quickly."
"We'll be ready. Tonight hasn't gone as we would have hoped. I said to the players that not every day will go as you want and tonight was one of those. But also, not everything will be wrong; we had enough chances really to win the game but we conceded too many chances as well."
Meanwhile, Southgate has been challenged by some of the senior players in the team after omitting Jack Grealish from the 2024 Euro squad list.
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