Editorials

Your Guide to England at the Euros

4 June 2016

By Joseph

With the opening game of the 2016 European championships kicking off very soon, b**p has prepared your go-to guide for the English national team at the tournament.

 

What Group Are We In?

Group B, alongside Slovakia, Russia and our neighbours Wales, who have qualified for the first time in their history.

According to the Fifa World Rankings, England are the 11th best national squad in the world, whilst Slovakia, Wales and Russia all come in between 24th and 29th place.

So statistically, we’ve got a pretty good chance of reaching the knock-out stages, however – as we know all too well – statistics make no guarantees.

 

What Does Our Squad Look Like?

Choosing England’s 24-man squad proved to be a headache for manager Roy Hodgson, who has made his intentions clear by engineering a very attack-minded team. With an average age of just 25, the team is full of young blood and emerging talent, which makes old faces like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry seem like distant memories.

There’s no denying the squad has bags of talent, but are they just lions led by donkeys?

Here’s England’s full UEFA Euro 2016 squad:

Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 21.14.30

Liverpool and Tottenham share the honour of contributing the most international players (5) to the side whilst only one player (Jamie Vardy) has been selected from the Premier League champions, Leicester City.

Premiership-winning midfielder Danny Drinkwater – who was awarded man of the match after his international debut in March – was a controversial exclusion, and Hodgson’s decision not to include talented Newcastle winger Andros Townsend is likely to leave England short of options down the flanks.

 

What’s Our Record Like in the Euros?

It could be worse…

Our greatest achievement came in the form of a third-placed finish back in 1968. As recently as 2008, we didn’t even qualify for the competition and we haven’t managed to progress beyond the quarter-finals since 1996, when we hosted the tournament and managed a semi-final run.

Last time out in 2012, England bowed out of the competition at the quarter final stage after losing to Italy – on penalties, of course.

 

When’s Our First Game? 

Saturday 11th June against Russia, to be played at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille

We then play Wales on Thursday 16th June and finish off against Slovakia on Monday 20th June.

One of the luxuries of the European Championships is that we don’t have to clamber out of bed at unsociable hours to watch the games, but do bear in mind that France (Central European Time) is one hour ahead of our Greenwich Mean Time.

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