Will Harry Kane’s unbeaten run continue at the European Football Championship (Euro 2024)? Even his own legend has shaken his head at England’s chances of winning the tournament.
“Alan Shearer had doubts about England’s chances of winning Euro 2024 after watching the A-match in March,” the UK’s Tribune reported on Aug. 28 (KST), citing Shearer’s lack of confidence in England’s chances of winning the tournament.
According to the outlet, Shearer told global sports outlet The Athletic: “If the back four is the same as against Belgium, I’m very worried. If Kyle Walker or John Stones don’t play for the national team, I’ll be worried. I don’t think we have a very good left back,” he said of the defense.
“No team is perfect, but I don’t think England are perfect defensively given the injury implications,” he added, predicting that it will be difficult for England to win Euro 2024.
Gareth Southgate’s side lost 0-1 to Brazil and drew 2-2 with Belgium in their March A matches, the latter of which was a nail-biter. After falling two goals behind to Yuri Tillemans, the Three Lions were narrowly beaten by Jude Bellingham’s penalty in stoppage time. The goal saved England from a second consecutive home loss for the first time in 11 years.
“The two goals against Belgium came from defensive mistakes,” Tribuna said. Jordan Pickford and Louis Dunk made back-to-back mistakes that led to two goals for Belgium.”
It went on to analyze the defense as a serious problem. “England’s struggles have been made more difficult by the absence of key defenders during the March A matches. “Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw were already ruled out before the game,” they said, “Kyle Walker pulled a hamstring in Brazil and John Stones was forced off with an injury 10 minutes into the Belgium game.
There’s still a lot of time left in the tournament, but Shearer pointed out that the team’s shaky performances with key players out have shown that there are no guarantees of consistency in the event of injuries.
England are one of the favorites to win the tournament. With France, led by Kylian Mbappe, considered the favorites, England is the second favorite after France.
However, as Shearer says, if England misses out on the tournament, it will be another in a long line of irrelevancies for attacking ace Harry Kane.
Kane suffered from a terrible irrelevance jinx at Tottenham. It’s not that he didn’t have his chances. In 2018-19, he appeared in the UEFA Champions League 토토사이트 final, but was ineffective and Liverpool won the trophy. In 2020-21, he reached the League Cup final, but was brought to his knees by Manchester City.
His national team jinx continued. The national team suffered repeatedly at the Euros, Nations League, and World Cup. At Euro 2020, they finished as runners-up after losing to Italy on penalties.
Kane headed to Germany’s most prestigious club heading into the season, Bayern Munich, hoping to win a trophy, but a loss in the DFL-Supercup ended his chances and a loss to a third-tier side in the DFB-Pokal Cup left him with his head down.
With the Bundesliga and Champions League still to play for, the team is 10 points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, while the Champions League quarterfinals are in the bag, but even if they beat Arsenal to reach the last four, they still face tricky teams like Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Even their own legend has downplayed their chances of winning the tournament. It will be interesting to see if Kane’s unbeaten run continues and if he can defy the odds and win the tournament.