England got off to a winning start at Euro 2024 thanks to Jude Bellingham’s first-half goal as Serbia proved unable to find an equaliser despite putting in an admirable display after going behind.
The Three Lions led at the break following Bellingham’s early opener, which came courtesy of a sharp reaction to get onto the trajectory of a deflected Bukayo Saka cross from the right.
Serbia showed plenty of endeavour either side of half-time as they pushed for a leveller, however, with Gareth Southgate’s side dropping deeper and deeper and inviting pressure upon themselves in the process.
Despite heavily dominating the territory, though, Serbia were frustrated in their efforts to carve out real clear-cut chances for themselves in the face of a stubborn England back line.
England were able to start incurring into the Serbian half as the second half wore on, with substitute Jarrod Bowen going close to claiming an assist moments after coming on only for Predrag Rajkovic to superbly push the hitherto anonymous Harry Kane’s header onto the bar.
Jordan Pickford came up big for England a few minutes later, getting up to turn Dusan Vlahovic’s long-range strike over the bar before Kane headed away a goal-bound Veljko Birmancevic effort from the resultant corner.
What do England need to get to the knockout stages of Euro 2024?
If England win their next game, against Denmark on Thursday, they will be certain to go through to the knockout stages. If Serbia also got at least a point against Slovenia, England would also be guaranteed to finish top of Group C.
We’ve heard from several pundits already at this tournament that one win is usually enough to get you through to the next round on its own, but that depends on whether you take usually to mean ‘virtually certainly’ or ‘on balance of probabilities’.
Since the Euros changed to a 24-team format in Euro 2016, five of the 16 teams eliminated at the group stage have claimed at least one win only to go out regardless.
You may also recall that Portugal went through as one of the best third-place ranking sides despite drawing all three of their group games at Euro 2016 – only to go on and win the entire tournament.
The magic number in fact seems to be four points: no side who has reached that tally has yet been eliminated from a 24-team Euros.
That means that although history suggests there’s a nice 69% chance that England will reach the knockouts regardless, earning one more point against either Denmark or Slovenia would make their standing a lot more certain.
More England stories
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