England beat Serbia in opening Euro 2024

England beat Serbia in opening Euro 2024

It should have been much more for England but maybe they should be grateful for small mercies. For much of their opening match of Euro 2024, England were hunting around in packs only to find that their prey were still waiting for them, ready to spring the most unexpected surprise. In fact this match was so ludicrously one sided for the best part of an hour that most of us were beginning to think that England's opponents Serbia would never turn up. This was football laced with caution, patience being a virtue and then a result that could easily have gone against Gareth Southgate's England.

Watching England at any international tournament can often leave blood pressures soaring and nerves in tatters. Latterly, England fans congregate in their pub gardens, drinking enormous quantities of lager and then wastefully spraying gallons of the amber nectar in an explosion of communal joy. In both Russia and Qatar World Cups, it was a case of what might have been had scenarios panned out in the right way. Then, three years ago in their own Wembley backyard, England met Italy in the Euro 2020 Final only to find that back doors had been left open and the second half was converted into a blue landscape of Neapolitan celebration probably matched only in London's vast communities of pizza parlours and spaghetti houses.

But last night, England approached the challenge as if their life depended on it. They built their attacks with all the meticulous attention to detail that would have been unthinkable during the 1970s. When Sir Alf Ramsey and Don Revie were in charge, it almost felt as if England had just discarded the finer points of the game where hard nosed pragmatism took precedence to the more technical refinements of the game. The passing game became totally anathema to both men and it's only now that England have been able to smell the coffee, wine and roses under England's present manager Gareth Southgate.

Poor Sir Alf had already sampled his day in the sun when his England lifted the 1966 World Cup and probably couldn't wait to put his feet up in his garden on retirement. Revie, for his part, quite literally betrayed his nation for Saudi riches with only a failure to reach the 1978 World Cup in Argentina to show for his efforts. Revie's style never really curried favour with the purists and only the likes of Gerry Francis had something exotic in his repertoire that reminded you of the likes of Brazil, Germany, France, Spain or Italy at their most polished. 

In their opening group game, England spent the best part of an hour just tapping out morse code on Gelsenkirchen's lush green acres, passing and passing and then passing the ball amongst themselves in some conspiratorial approach that suggested that some secretive and clandestine plot would now be revealed. For at least half an hour you began to lose count of the multitude of passes that Gareth Southgate's men had accumulated. On the half way line, at least, Declan Rice, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham simply chose to play keep ball and such was its constancy and repetitive nature that you'd have been forgiven for thinking that they were simply conducting some bizarre experiment with the ball.

And yet this was the way we've always dreamed that the England national team would play. True, it almost looked as if Gareth Southgate's men were just creating some bold and innovative work of art that nobody had ever seen before. Over and over again the ball would be recycled in some remarkable display of ball rotation that had to be seen to be believed. You were reminded of those classic Hollywood films where the revolving door would only stop once the joke had now passed its sell by date.

Admittedly, England had already taken the lead by the time the passing routine had exhausted itself. Jude Bellingham, surely the poster boy and England's most classical talent of the modern generation, met Bukayo Saka's well judged cross with a bullet of a header that rippled in the back of the net before most of us had had time to tuck into our bucket of popcorn. It was a beautifully constructed movement involving several white England shirts and suddenly we were looking at an England who'd formed an almost intimate relationship with a football. 

This was no longer an England side who simply despised the ball, desperate to release it into some far distant stratosphere where none would ever find it again. This was an England who'd found a kindred spirit with a ball, common ground and, quite literally, a moving rapport with it. It felt as if an entire generation of English footballers had received the right education, taken notice of the guidance and advice and shrewdly executed everything they'd been taught.

The irony was of course that the spine of England's defence had an air of fragility about it that might have caused so many more problems than was good for them. Both John Stones and Kyle Walker are no longer spring chickens anymore and there was a nervous foreboding that things wouldn't go exactly according to plan. But Stones has another Premier League title winning medal in his locker with Manchester City and Walker, too, can boast the same achievement. The dependability of Stones and Walker has something of the Terry Butcher and Dave Watson about it; formidable barriers who bear just a little resemblance to nightclub bouncers and just stare menacingly at forwards. 

In England's midfield, Gareth Southgate gambled admirably on Liverpool's Trent Alexander Arnold teaming up with Declan Rice in front of England's defence, shielding, covering and carefully scrutinising every Serbian shirt with a vigilance that restored your faith in Gareth Southgate. With Marc Guehi at the back, guarding then intercepting the ball in vital areas, Jude Bellingham and then Phil Foden who also flaunted his Premier League winning credentials, controlled everything in front of them. 

At times it probably felt as if England were just imitating the template set down by Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Brazil and France throughout the decades. But then the second half began and with England a goal ahead somebody must have forgotten to tell Gareth Southgate that Serbia could only get better after a listless first half. They did indeed come out of the shell with Filip Kostic, Dusan Tadic and Alexsander Mitrovic proving a worrying handful for the English defence. Suddenly, Serbia grew into the game and their passing was far more commendable and progressive than in a turgid first half.

Throughout, Serbia inched their way painstakingly into the game and could have equalised at any moment given the shock to England's system. England were now swaying on their tightrope, pushed back almost dramatically by the sheer force of will and character of the Serbians. Serbia were back in the game and repeatedly broke through the centre of England's now panic stricken defence. It seemed only a matter of time before Serbia would be on level terms such was the intensity of their pressing game and the more assertive side to their attacking prowess.

Sadly though, this was not their night and the old Yugoslavia were left to reflect on the agonising near misses that now littered their game. In the bad old days of Tito, Yugoslavia used to be a force to be reckoned with at international level without ever seriously bothering the bigger boys in the playground. But Serbia eventually found all the right attacking connections and when the final whistle went, Gareth Southgate's England men were just relieved to be on the right side of a battle. Even Harry Kane, the captain, who headed against the bar from substitute Jarrod Bowen's cross, could only smile wryly. If this had been debut night for Euro 2024 for England then Denmark, in their second group stage game, could prove a much bigger obstacle. Oh to be an England fan.