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8th June 2024
10:12am BST
England fans have called for Gareth Southgate to be sacked before Euro 2024 has even started.
Friday's final warm-up game against Iceland ended in defeat as Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson’s 12th-minute goal was enough to separate the two sides at Wembley, ending England's preparations on a sour note before the first group game against Serbia a week on Sunday.
Southgate named a strong side that included the likes of John Stones, Declan Rice and Harry Kane but none of them could get firing and were greeted with boos from the 81,000 or so inside Wembley come full time.
It wasn't just fans inside the ground that voiced their displeasure, with many taking to social media to call for Southgate to be sacked less than a week before the Euros begins.
"Please can we just sack Southgate and go into euros managerless," said one fan on X.
Another commented: "Can negative Nelly Southgate be sacked now, it’s not too late?
"I do think if England lose to Iceland at home Southgate should be sacked sorry. If England are gonna be s**t at the Europe’s they might as well be funny about it," added a third.
A fourth said: "Counting down the days for Southgate to be sacked.
"Gareth Southgate needs to be sacked before this tournament starts if they want to reach the last eight. Absolutely shocking," stated a fifth.
This fan said: "This England team is rubbish, Southgate should be sacked immediately."
Despite the tense atmosphere at full time Southgate isn't too downbeat and knows that his side will be ready when they take on Serbia in Gelsenkrichen.
He told Channel 4: "I’m confident we will be better than we were tonight against Serbia in our opening game.
"I completely understand that we didn’t play well enough to keep the crowd excited. You would like a good performance and a crowd that’s been entertained to leave them on a high before the Euros and clearly we weren’t at the level we needed to be.
"It was a far from ideal night and I’m not going to dress up the disappointment as something else, so we have to stay calm because we will be better against Serbia. In a way it will focus the mind and it shows that any complacency, or thinking that talent alone is going to get us this trophy, won’t be enough. We have to be spot-on to win every game at this level. Iceland deserved to win, but it will focus our minds that we have to do better next weekend."
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