‘More to come’, England promise

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate said his team would get better after they beat the Czech Republic 1-0 at Wembley on Tuesday night to secure top spot in Euro 2020 Group D.

“I think there is more to come from us definitely, we haven’t scored from a set-play yet, we are not fluent but we have moments when we look a good side,” Southgate said.

England will face the secondplaced team in Group F – most likely Portugal, Germany or France – which was to have been decided last night, but Southgate said he was glad to have secured home advantage with next Tuesday’s match being held at Wembley.

“Who knows if that is going to be a good draw or not? We wanted to win the group, wanted to play at Wembley,” he said.

Defender Harry Maguire, who returned to the side after injury, agreed that England had more to offer.

“We’ve set out to win the group and we’ve done that. Can we play better? Of course, we can. Will we improve? We’ll do everything we can. Three clean sheets, been solid.

The fundamentals are there and now we’ve got to tidy up in every part of our game,” he said.

“In tournament football it’s about big moments in big games and not giving the opponents big moments to score from and at the moment we are doing that well.”

Goalscorer Raheem Sterling was more upbeat about the team’s performance against the Czechs.

“There are positives from the game. We kept the ball better today. It gave us more attacking options. We got in the gaps really well, played some good football and got the goal we needed,” he said.

“If you don’t concede goals, you win football matches. You just need to score at the other end. People were disappointed in the Scotland game (0-0), but we didn’t concede.

The most important thing was to win the group.”

Sterling was unfazed about the prospect of facing a round of 16 tie against tough opponents.

“At some point you have to face the best teams. It is about challenging yourselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, more than 60 000 fans will be allowed to attend the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020 at Wembley, with attendance increased to 75% of capacity, the British government announced on Tuesday.

The matches will see the largest crowds assembled at a sporting event in Britain for more than 15 months, with numbers previously strictly limited due to Covid-19.

All ticket holders at Wembley will need to follow a number of strict entry requirements, including having a negative Covid-19 test or proof of full vaccination.

There has been no announcement on the outcome of talks between the government, the Football Association and Uefa over a solution to allow up to 2 500 VIPs to attend the final on July 11, but a deal now appears more likely.