England lose final friendly before Euro 2024

After the final whistle, Wembley Stadium was filled with a few whistles, as if to criticize the performance of Gareth Southgate and his team. Hundreds of empty seats appeared in the stands when the match just ended. Despite using almost the strongest lineup with stars Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, the home team could not score the whole match.

Iceland is not eligible for Euro 2024, and is currently ranked 72nd in FIFA, lower than some Asian teams such as Iraq, UAE or Jordan. However, they eliminated England in the round of 16 of Euro 2016, and continued to be the "nemesis" of the "Three Lions" in the friendly match at Wembley Stadium.

The visitors scored the only goal in the 12th minute, when striker Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson performed a solo, dribbling the ball from the left into the middle and then shot through the legs of defender John Stones into the near corner. The shot was so dangerous that goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale dived but could not reach the ball. After conceding the goal, striker and captain Kane covered his face in disappointment.

Kane also had to blame himself, when he missed the home team's best chance of the match. In the 29th minute, Palmer received the ball on the right, crossed for the 31-year-old striker to rush down and connect from less than 5 meters away without being marked by anyone, but the ball missed the post by a hair.

Apart from this situation, England also created a few chances but they were not really dangerous. Age Hareide's team played a crowded defense, not giving the home team's stars much room to play. In the second half, although Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney, Eberechi Eze and Trent Alexander-Arnold came on the field one after another, the home team's attacking ability still did not improve. They passed the ball 598 times in the match, but only once shot towards the goal.

Iceland almost added another goal in the 63rd minute, when Hakon Arnar Haraldsson broke free down the right and crossed for Thorsteinsson. The Iceland striker missed the chance to score twice, when he slipped before tapping the ball in close range, sending it flying wide. However, the incident did not affect the outcome of the match, leaving Southgate with a lot to do in the next week.

Southgate's team will play Serbia on June 16, then Denmark and Slovenia. England are listedOptarated as favourites to win the Euros, but their performance at Wembley may have caused pundits to reconsider.