It was a familiar story for Gareth Southgate’s England in their second game at Euro 2024, as they took the lead against Denmark before dropping deep and allowing their opponents back into the game.
England started brightly and took the lead in the 18th minute through their captain Harry Kane, but after that produced little. Denmark’s influence grew and grew and they scored a deserved equaliser through Morten Hjulmand after 34 minutes.
The result means England are top of Group C with four points from two games, ahead of their final match against Slovenia on June 25. Denmark are second in the group with two points, and play Serbia in their final game.
Jack Pitt-Brooke, Mark Carey, Dan Sheldon and James McNicholas analyse the key talking points from the game in Frankfurt…
England drop off after going ahead — again
In both of England’s games at Euro 2024, they have taken an early lead. Ordinarily, a goal in the first 20 minutes would be expected to settle any nerves and provide a platform on which to build for the rest of the game.
Instead, England have responded to those early goals with lethargic passing, conservative positioning and a total abolition of offensive movement.
For the remainder of the first half, England seemed to have problems all through their spine. In midfield, Declan Rice and Trent Alexander-Arnold were pinned back on the edge of their penalty box. Ahead, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane seemed to want to occupy all the same spaces. England looked ragged and out of ideas.
A persistent criticism of Gareth Southgate has been England’s inability to control games. Their ongoing inability to seize the initiative — even when ahead — will only lead to more scrutiny.
James McNicholas
Kane scores… but struggles
Despite the opening goal, this was not a classic Harry Kane performance.
He started the game in the best possible way, slotting in Walker’s cross to put England 1-0 up in the 18th minute. It felt like an important goal for a man who has made a habit of starting the last two tournaments slowly before finding his best form during the knockout phase. That made this the first goal he had scored in a group stage since his hat-trick against Panama in Nizhny Novgorod almost six years ago.
But just as Kane was criticised for not doing enough in the build-up against Serbia, today he was criticised for not doing enough as a conventional No 9. He didn’t press, didn’t run in behind and never looked at 100 per cent.
Even then, it was still a surprise when he was replaced with over 20 minutes left for Ollie Watkins. Kane was carrying a back injury at the end of the season with Bayern Munich, and Southgate has been keen to protect him in tournaments before, so he doesn’t always play 90 minutes.
But it certainly raises questions going into the Slovenia game, just as there have been in group stages before.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Hjulmand’s wonderstrike catches England out
Morten Hjulmand’s equaliser was struck from 30.9 metres out, making it the longest-range goal at the Euros since Mikkel Damsgaard’s goal, for Denmark, against England in 2021. As sloppy as England were in the build-up, it was an outstanding strike.
(Franco Arland/Getty Images)
The 24-year-old Sporting Lisbon midfielder has been linked with a move to Tottenham — but Spurs’ interest may hit a snag.
“My dad supported and we watched games together when we were younger,” Hjulmand told Sporting’s in-house television channel. “When I started watching football, Arsenal had a fantastic team and Patrick Vieira was the captain and played in midfield. He was and is a great inspiration for me.”
It’s more than a casual attachment: Hjulmand has the special crest which commemorates the 125th anniversary of Arsenal’s formation tattooed on his left arm.
James McNicholas
Did Southgate’s substitutes make an impact?
Gareth Southgate made a triple substitution with just over 20 minutes remaining, bringing on Eberechi Eze for Bukayo Saka, Jarrod Bowen in place of Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins for Harry Kane.
Bowen went wide right, Eze slotted in on the left and Watkins played through the middle.
Watkins made a quick start, forcing the Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel into tipping his shot out for a corner after Jude Bellingham’s defence-splitting pass set the Aston Villa striker free.
The trio’s pace and direct style of play gave Denmark something else to think about and, at times, they threatened to get in behind and stretch their opponents, only for a foul or misplaced pass to halt their progress.
But the main issue for Southgate’s side, particularly in the final exchanges, is that they did not see enough of the ball. Denmark were far more comfortable in possession and at no point did they look troubled.
Conor Gallagher had replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 54th minute and was quickly booked for a foul on Joakim Maehle. As always with the Chelsea midfielder, he wasn’t short of energy, but the change did not help England regain control of midfield and Denmark created chances in the final minutes.
Dan Sheldon
England’s lop-sided attack
The positive take on England’s right flank is that they do look dangerous in a lot of their attacking sequences worked down that side of the pitch.
Against Serbia, it was Bukayo Saka’s cross that led to Jude Bellingham’s headed goal, while Kyle Walker’s pace and overlapping run were crucial to England’s opener against Denmark. There is the right balance on that side of the pitch, and Saka in particular looks to be having a strong start to the tournament in his first two games.
England identified a weakness in Denmark’s left side of defence and channelled a lot of their attack down that side, with 44 per cent of their attacking touches coming from the right flank. Across the two games, 12 crosses have been made for the right, with just four from the left. Unfortunately, that skew towards England’s attack speaks to the negative take on proceedings — that it is largely borne out of necessity.
It has been well-documented, but playing a right-footed Kieran Trippier at left-back is not going to offer that same overlapping threat — or pace in wide areas — and Phil Foden ahead of him is so much more of a ball-to-feet player who enjoys drifting inside and picking up pockets of space in tight areas. When opponents know that to be the case, they can adapt their own attacking game plan accordingly as England become predictable going forward.
The optimistic view is that England’s right side of attack is looking strong. The pessimistic view is that their left flank is lacking the same pace and penetration.
Mark Carey
Another dodgy pitch at the Euros
It took all of seven minutes for the pitch to show it wasn’t quite up to scratch, with Denmark and England players slipping and sliding all over the place, most notably Kyle Walker who went down and took a significant chunk of grass with him.
The 34-year-old then jogged past the England dugout and signalled that he wanted a different pair of boots, realising there wasn’t enough grip on the ones he was wearing.
(Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
It is not the first grass-related issue at this tournament either, with the pitch at Dusseldorf’s Merkur-Spiel Arena needing to be relaid twice and then dug up and put down a third time after UEFA inspected it and said it was still unsatisfactory.
Although the state of the pitch — last relaid in November — is a damaging reflection on the host venue, more alarmingly is that it is a risk to the players, who could easily roll an ankle or injure themselves far more seriously as there is little to no support underfoot.
Given the condition of the pitch and the potential jeopardy for both teams, they managed to navigate it and still create good passing sequences and threatening attacks.
Dan Sheldon
England’s jarring lack of intensity
Due to the nature of international football, it is widely accepted that teams will rarely play with the same intensity out of possession that you will see at club level. There is simply less time to work on pressing triggers when there is such little training time available, so team shape and a structured defensive block are largely preferred — although nations such as Austria have defied such logic.
For England, their lack of intensity out of possession was notably jarring. Whether it was fatigue, heat or a lack of confidence, there were very few moments when Southgate’s side squeezed the pitch and put Denmark under real pressure in their build-up — instead allowing them to progress to the middle third with ease.
A look at the numbers highlights this further. England’s 28 passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) — used as a proxy of pressing intensity — was the least intense when aggregating their Euro 2020, World Cup 2022 and Euro 2024 games.
There will be plenty of analysis in the days to come, but England’s defensive approach would be a good place to start.
Mark Carey
What next for England?
Tuesday, June 25: Slovenia, Cologne, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
What next for Denmark?
Tuesday, June 25: Serbia, Munich, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
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(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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