England’s golden generation wants to overcome its ghosts in the European Cup

A english team arrives at Euro 2024played in Germany, with hopes placed on a golden generation that shines in the best European clubs, but marked by decades of disappointments and broken promises.

In July 2021, all of England believed they were ending a long title drought, which dates back to the 1966 World Cup at home. The scenario was dreamlike: a final at Wembley against an Italian team that in its journey throughout the tournament left more doubts than certainties.

But the title, decided in a penalty shootout, once again slipped out of the hands of the ‘Three Lions’, who just 20 months later were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup by France, once again falling short of glory. .

Full-time at @wembleystadium. pic.twitter.com/l66lOgFUd2

— England (@England) June 7, 2024

Since then, a lot has changed: in 2024, Phil Foden became the first Englishman since 2016 to be named the best player of the year in the Premier League, Jude Bellingham was one of the protagonists of the Champions League for Real Madrid and Harry Kane shone in his first year away from Tottenham, although he was without titles.

At 30 years old, the Bayern Munich striker will captain the English team in Germany, in a tournament in which only final victory seems an acceptable result for players and fans.

Strength in attack

In Bavaria, and despite the Munich team’s bad year, Kane showed that he is capable of shining outside of north London, scoring 44 goals in 45 games. While in Madrid, Bellingham took little time to justify his transfer and delighted the Real Madrid fans with 23 goals in 42 games.

In England, all attention turned to the young ‘Citizen’ Foden, already indispensable in Manchester City’s starting team and scorer of 27 goals this season across all competitions.

But it wasn’t just him who shone in the country that invented football: Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice were two of Arsenal’s best players who made the team dream of the title until the last round, while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez returned to show his best football at Liverpool.

Inside the dressing room 👀 pic.twitter.com/cFIFScRtE1

— England (@England) June 7, 2024

All of them are available to the always questioned Gareth Southgate, in charge of the England team since November 2016, who has in his hands, perhaps for the last time, a team full of talent and with an eye for goal, despite having left out, in his last call-up, big names like James Maddison and Jack Grealish.

An accessible group

The first step on England’s path will be group C, theoretically accessible to Southgate’s players, in which only Denmark will make life difficult for the English, who finished the Euro Cup qualifiers undefeated (6 wins and 2 draws) and having suffered just 4 goals in 8 games.

The ‘Three Lions’ debut will be on June 16th, against Serbia, at Schalke 04’s home, the Veltis Arena, in Gelsenkirchen. Then there will be the crucial match against the Danes, before the last game of the group stage, against Slovenia, the opponent considered the weakest in the group.

However, in such a short tournament, any mistake is costly and despite the comfortable classification, the English team won only one of the three friendlies played in 2024, a warning not to reduce intensity.

In Germany, this golden generation will have the opportunity to mark its name in the history of English football and end the 58-year long drought.