Frustrated England eke out draw against Denmark with Gareth Southgate’s future hanging over competition
It was a night of frustration in Frankfurt for The Three Lions and Denmark fans rubbed it in.
“Champions of Europe – you’ll never sing that,” they chanted in good-natured taunts.
The England supporters drifting out of the stadium after the 1-1 draw had nothing in response.
Just mostly silence between the grumbling about Gareth Southgate’s tactics and whether he’s getting enough out of such a talented group.
He is not, most believed.
Still inside the Frankfurt stadium, Southgate was trying to explain why they fell short.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
England booed after 1-1 draw
“These boys aren’t lacking effort at the moment,” Southgate said. “It’s not a case of they’re not trying, but we’ve got to find a better way of playing. We’ve got to find more quality in what we’re doing.”
But hearing booing from your own fans can be demoralising, especially at a tournament.
“If we don’t hit that level… we have to accept what comes our way,” Southgate said.
“We have to find the best way to solve that. Of course we need the fans.”
Gareth Southgate talking to defender Kieran Trippier after the game. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
So many have seen this all before – a lead gained and not built on.
Against Serbia, holding on proved just enough for a 1-0 win to open Group C.
Now with four points, that should be enough to take England through to the knockout phase.
But qualification could have been secured – before facing Slovenia on Tuesday – as group winners had they built on Harry Kane’s 18th-minute close-range goal.
But they were too sluggish. Too sloppy.
England star Jude Bellingham
And too much space was given for Morten Hjulmand to equalise 15 minutes after Kane’s opener with a stunning strike from distance.
“I don’t think that’s the physical level of the team at the moment,” Southgate said.
Whatever Southgate said at halftime didn’t produce the response required – just a couple of attempts from Phil Foden and Declan Rice.
“Our press wasn’t intense enough, and it meant that our backline had a problem with the players dropping either side of our pivots,” Southgate said.
“So that’s something that has to be better. We know with the profile of players that we’ve got, we don’t feel the way to press is really high up the pitch.”
Southgate didn’t make a bold call – waiting until 20 minutes to go before making a triple change.
That, unusually meant, removing captain Kane.
“The other night took a lot out of him,” Southgate said of Sunday’s 1-0 win over Serbia.
“We could have stayed with it, but we thought, to get speed in the front line at that moment, to get energy to be able to press, was important.”
What could change against Slovenia – taking right back Trent Alexander-Arnold out of midfield?
Read more:
Southgate says ‘huge amount of work’ to do after Denmark draw
Serbia threaten to pull out of Euro 2024
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“I understand you’re always going to ask me about individuals, but the team didn’t function today,” Southgate responded. “That’s my responsibility. I’m in control of that. I have to find solutions to that.
“The players are giving absolutely everything they have … if anything, they’re showing they care too much.”
And it is the country caring so much about the fortunes of the Three Lions – and a quest for a first trophy since 1966 – that shows there is so much expectation and pressure to deliver.
Especially when the unexpected can happen at a Euros – Greece winning in 2004 and, of course, Denmark in 1992. As they were reminded of in those chants here.
For Southgate the coming weeks in Germany will determine his legacy – and whether he leaves the job after eight years.
He said: “I’ve got to lead the group in the right way, make intelligent decisions to find the best balance, to find more of a threat with what we’re delivering with the ball.
“And to be better without the ball so that we’re not needing to defend for the long periods of the game that we are at the moment.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
Read more from Sky News:
Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money
‘It’s an apocalypse’ – families return to homes reduced to ruins by wildfires
The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway