Around 45,000 fans will be at Wembley on Tuesday night to witness England’s Euro 2020 last-16 showdown against arch foes Germany.
The figure is the highest for a UK football fixture since the coronavirus pandemic first arose, with 52,267 fans in attendance at Anfield for Liverpool’s Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid back in March 2020.
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Thousands of fans have already assembled outside Wembley
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Football fever is gripping the nation ahead of the crunch Germany showdown
22,500 supporters were allowed to watch England’s group games at the national stadium, but that capacity has increased for the knockout stages of the competition.
Should the Three Lions get the better of Germany – with the crunch match LIVE on talkSPORT – and manage to get to the final of the European Championship, it would mean that Southgate’s men would only play one match away from Wembley for the entirety of the tournament.
There will be an additional increase of 15,000 fans allowed into the ground for both the semi-finals and final.
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Will England or Germany progress to the quarter-finals?
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Can Southgate trump Joachim Low and deliver Euro 2020 glory for England?
Germany were ten minutes from elimination but drew with Hungary in their last game to progress from the ‘Group of Death’, which also included the World Cup holders France and Portugal.
England, meanwhile, opened their Group D campaign with a narrow 1-0 win over Croatia thanks to a Raheem Sterling strike.
Gareth Southgate’s side produced a lethargic display in a 0-0 draw with Scotland at Wembley, but Sterling was on target again as England beat the Czech Republic 1-0 to top Group D.
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Frank de Boer has stepped down as Netherlands manager following the nation’s Euro 2020 exit.
The Dutch were dumped out by the Czech Republic in the last 16 on Sunday, failing to capitalise on a favourable route the the final after a promising group campaign.
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De Boer’s departure has been confirmed
It means De Boer, whose tenures at Inter Milan and Crystal Palace ended within weeks, has suffered another short-lived managerial role.
The KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association) has confirmed the former Netherlands international, who replaced Ronald Koeman last September, will not continue as manager after a mutual decision.
De Boer said in a statement: “The objective has not been achieved, that is clear.
“When I was approached to become national coach in 2020, I thought it was an honor and a challenge, but I was also aware of the pressure that would come upon me from the moment I was appointed, that pressure is only increasing now, and that is not a healthy situation for me, nor for the squad in the run-up to such an important match for the Dutch football on its way to World Cup qualification.”
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The ten-man Netherlands were beaten 2-0 by the Czechs
Nico-Jan Hoogma, director of football at the KNVB, insisted that while De Boer left of his own accord, a contract renewal necessitated reaching the quarter-finals at a minimum.
He said: “Despite all of Frank’s efforts, the goal of at least reaching the quarter-finals has not been achieved.
“If that had not been achieved, we would evaluate, which could possibly have produced a different outcome.
“We had bet on a better European Championship, but that didn’t work out.
“The choice for Frank turned out differently than we had hoped. A successor must now be found by me, after good internal consultation.”
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Some reader reaction: “The Germany team arguably has three defenders and seven attackers – ours has the opposite,” writes Rick Harris. “I think we know where most of the football will be played – in England’s half.”
“I guess the answer to the burning question: ‘How do you fit Mount, Foden, and Graelish into the same team?’ is: Don’t play any of them,” writes Shawn Grant.
“You have not been following the ‘Southgate is a moron’ twitter trend close enough,” writes Mary Waltz. “A wise choice for your mental health but here is how it will proceed. If England beat Germany the Southgate-slaggers will go to these two arguments: Germany is an old washed up squad and England won despite Southgates stupidity’.”
That England team: It’s a simultaneously cautious and bold selection from Gareth Southgate, who I suspect will get massacred by fans and the media if that ludicrously defensive team gets beaten. Of course if they win, he’ll be hailed as a genius.
Antonio Rudiger and Robin Gosens start for Jogi Low, but Ilkay Gundogan is out: Neuer; Ginter, Hummels, Rudiger; Kimmich, Gosens, Kroos, Goretzka; Muller, Havertz, Werner.
The England line-up is exactly as predicted, with no place for Jack Grealish, Mason Mount or Phil Foden in the starting XI: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Rice, Phillips, Shaw; Saka, Kane Sterling.
England players loiter with intent at Wembley. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AP
Declan Rice, Mason Mount and Luke Shaw shoot the breeze during their pre-match perambulation on the Wembley sward. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Reuters
Confirmed: Frank De Boer has left his post as manager of the Netherlands after tendering his resignation. ““I have decided not to continue as national coach,” he said in a statement. “The objective has not been achieved, that is clear.”
The England Band: Arguably the most unpopular musical collective in the UK, the unloved and unwanted attention-seekers that are the England Band will be making their post-lockdown return to the international football arena this evening. It’s great news for those who love endlessly parped brass renditions of The Great Escape and Rule Britannia while trying to watch a football match, if such people actually exist.
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Germany fans get to Wembley early. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AFP/Getty Images
This just in: Reports from the Netherlands suggest that Frank De Boer has been sacked as manager of the national team following their Round of 16 exit from Euro 2020 at the hands of the Czech Republic.
Fans arrive at Wembley ahead of this evening’s game. Photograph: Zac Goodwin/PA
Pre-match: It has been revealed that Germany’s players will take the knee along with England’s prior to kick-off, while team skippers Harry Kane and Manuel Neuer will both wear rainbow armbands to show their support for the LGBT community.
Max Rushden and I were joined by Philippe Auclair, Rory Smith and Nick Ames to discuss two thrilling games, fourteen goals, several missed penalties, goalkeeper gaffes and some very late drama on our award-winning, chart-topping podcast yesterday. You can listen to it on the Guardian Football website and if you’re not already a subscriber, sign up for free in all the usual pod places. We’ll be back tonight to pick over the bones of this game and Sweden’s match against Ukraine.
Tonight’s match officials
Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Assistant referees: Hessel Steegstra and Jan de Vries (Netherlands)
Fourth official: Srdjan Jovanović (Serbia)
Video Assistant Referee: Pol van Boekel (Netherlands)
Dutch referee Danny Makkelie is in charge of maintaining order at Wembley this evening. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Reuters
Early team news
The jungle drum noises emanating from the England camp suggest Gareth Southgate is going for a belt, another belt and several pairs of braces approach to today’s game.
Rum our has it he is set to switch to a back three for the first time in this tournament, mirroring Germany’s expected 3-4-3 formation. Bukayo Saka is expected to keep his place in the side after his man of the match performance against the Czech Republic.
If these rumours from The Athletic’s David Ornstein - a well connected newshound who doesn’t get much wrong, are correct - there is unlikely to be a place for Phil Foden, Mason Mount or Jack Grealish in Gareth Southgate’s starting line-up. If he picks the team leaked to the media and it loses, he will get slaughtered.
Mount and Ben Chilwell have spent the past week training separately from the rest of the squad after being forced into quarantine following their lengthy chat with Chelsea team-mate Typhoid Billy in the immediate aftermath of the Scotland match. The duo have since been released back into polite society and are available for selection but neither is expected to start.
Germany have doubts over the availability of three key players, with Antonio Rudiger, Ilkay Gundogan and Robin Gosens all due to be assessed ahead of kick-off. Sky Sports in Germany are reporting that Gundogan will definitely be absent.
That leaked and possibly wrong (in every sense of the word) England line-up: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Rice, Phillips, Shaw; Saka, Kane Sterling.
Along with Mason Mount and several training ground mannequins, Ben Chilwell has been put through his paces separately from the rest of the England squad for the past week. Photograph: Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA/Getty Images
Following one of the most breathtaking days of international tournament football in living memory, the baton is passed to England and Germany as they renew hostilities at Wembley. Much has been written about their long rivalry in the build-up to this game, with many suggesting that England fans are far more obsessed with it than their German counterparts.
That may well be the case but once Dutch referee Danny Makkelie blows his whistle for the first time this evening, battles of yore will be quickly forgotten as both teams set about trying to assert their authority and dominance in the here and now. Kick-off at whgat promises to be a ludicrously tense Wembley affair is at 5pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
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And so it ends, not with a bang but with a whimper. France have been dispatched by a plucky and opportunistic Switzerland side, but also in large part by the frustrating tactics and selections of their manager. Didier Deschamps’ team had been the favourites to win this competition since the final whistle blew in the World Cup final in 2018.
There have been some minor changes in personnel since that match, with Blaise Matuidi retiring from international duty and Samuel Umtiti being felled by injury. However, on the whole, his side looked more than primed to follow in the footsteps of the France teams of two decades ago, who won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship two years later.
However, the current iteration of the team, which has struggled to integrate Karim Benzema – his four goals in the tournament notwithstanding – lacked solidity, the Germany fixture aside. In that 1-0 win over Germany, there was never a hint that France, playing with three of the back four who had won the World Cup in 2018, with Presnel Kimpembe in for Umtiti, would concede. Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard are both idealised hybrids of centre-backs (in their physicality) and full-backs (in their workrate) and they did not look vulnerable at all. Raphäel Varane was imperious in defence, with his experience and communication helping Kimpembe (who had only won 14 caps before the tournament) grow into the match.
With Hernandez unavailable for the Switzerland match due to a knee injury, and his replacement, the more attack-minded Lucas Digne, also out, Deschamps rearranged his vaunted 4-3-3 into a 3-4-3. The risks of undertaking such a major tactical shift mid-tournament are obvious and, given how quickly France retreated from it, we can safely say that it was as ill-advised as it seemed. Any set of players would have struggled with such a radical shift on short notice, but the defence picked by Deschamps only added to their struggles.
A natural move would have been to bring in Kurt Zouma on the right of the three, given that the Chelsea man has been exposed to that shape regularly this season. Zouma’s pace would also have alleviated some of the pressure on Benjamin Pavard being deployed in a more advanced role. With Kimpembe on the left, Varane – who is a wonderful organiser and an adept passer but has not always looked the most fleet of foot at this tournament – could have been safely positioned in the middle.
Instead, Deschamps opted for Clement Lenglet, a player who was coming off a mediocre season with Barcelona and had not played even a minute in the group stage or in France’s two pre-tournament friendlies. With Kimpembe and Lenglet haring about next to him, even the normally reliably Varane looked at sea and his effectiveness in the tackle was soon muted by an early yellow card.
More important than Varane’s booking, though, was Lenglet’s lack of form. He was badly exposed in Switzerland’s opening goal and was removed at half-time. Deschamps must regret his failure to involve Aymeric Laporte in the last 18 months. Given Umtiti’s injury issues, the fact that the Manchester City player was never capped is simply inexcusable. To make matters worse, he will be playing for Spain against Switzerland in the next round.
France looked more coherent in the second half, with Kingsley Coman coming on and the team clearly switching to a 4-3-3. However, Deschamps’ choices again made things unnecessarily difficult. Instead of deploying Lyon full-back Léo Dubois, who has played at left-back on more than a dozen occasions in Ligue 1, he asked Rabiot to play as a makeshift left-back. Rabiot had already run himself ragged as a similarly makeshift wing-back in the first half and, even though he is a more than competent midfielder, he adds no natural width.
On top of that, Rabiot has been coping with an injured ankle, making the role of a full-back particularly unsuitable given the demands it places on a player. Even with Digne and Hernandez both unavailable, it was a surprise to see more pressure placed on Rabiot, who had, to his credit, turned in a competent first half. Picking up injuries after a long and challenging season is unsurprising, but France’s problems hardly ended there.
As it had in previous matches, the relationship between Kylian Mbappé and Benzema too often foundered, with both strikers often occupying similar areas on the left flank. This confusion in terms of positioning – something that was hardly helped by Benzema’s long period in the international wilderness – meant that France’s attack often lacked cohesion, despite Antoine Griezmann’s determined efforts to play as a No 10 behind the front two.
Mbappé, perhaps frustrated by his limited service and dearth of opportunities, too often snatched at chances. Yann Sommer did make a fine save to deny the striker’s penalty, but his inability to find the net from open play was surely weighing on his mind during the shootout.
Yann Sommer saves Kylian Mbappé’s penalty. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
In the Germany match, the number of chances the forwards missed did not matter so much because the team was in control, especially in terms of their defensive aptitude and continuity – much as it had been at the 2018 World Cup. But with that continuity gone, the knock-on effects were simply too great to overcome. Even Paul Pogba, who scored a brilliant goal from range, cut a frustrated figure at times. And the underrated passing ability of his midfield partner, N’Golo Kanté, also went unused. Despite his usual work ethic, the Chelsea man was all but invisible.
Not all is lost for France. This is the benefit of having the World Cup so close to the Euros. Deschamps can sort out the system and personnel he thinks is best and reflect on the mistakes he made, even if injury and form had forced his hand to some degree. Had injuries not affected what would have been his first-choice back four, France would surely have had enough to win this match, if not the entire tournament.
That said, some in France will question Deschamps’ future. His reliance on counter-attacking is one thing when you reach consecutive major finals, but it is another altogether when you concede three goals to Switzerland and go out before the quarter-finals. Deschamps’ contract runs through the World Cup next year and, despite his missteps against Switzerland, the FFF will likely give him another chance.
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Patrick Vieira looks set to take over as Crystal Palace manager after agreeing a deal to succeed Roy Hodgson at Selhurst Park.
The former France international – who has been out of work since being sacked by Ligue 1 side Nice in December – has held productive talks with the Palace co-chairman Steve Parish this week and is expected to be confirmed as the manager within the next 24 hours.
It would bring to an end a difficult recruitment process for Parish, who broke off talks with Nuno Espírito Santo before the former Borussia Dortmund manager Lucien Favre turned down the post on the day he was due to sign a three-year contract last week. Despite attempts to make the 63-year-old change his mind, it is understood that Palace have settled on Vieira and hope that he can be appointed in time to be granted a work permit to begin pre-season training next week.
Vieira, who won 107 caps for France and captained Arsenal’s Invincibles in 2004, appeared on Palace’s initial list of candidates along with Frank Lampard, Burnley’s Sean Dyche and Valérien Ismaël, who has left Barnsley to take over at West Bromwich Albion. Vieira managed the MLS side New York City before moving to Nice in 2018.
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Footballers taking the knee for racial justice should honour the memory of Dalian Atkinson, his family has said, after a police officer was jailed for eight years for his manslaughter, having kicked him in the head while he was on the ground.
The call from Atkinson’s family came hours before England players were expected to again take the knee before their Euro 2020 game against Germany..
The Atkinson family watched on Tuesday as PC Benjamin Monk was sentenced for manslaughter, after a jury found his use of a stun gun for 33 seconds and at least two kicks to the former football star’s head had killed him.
Monk, 43, was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years in jail by Judge Melbourne Inman QC at Birmingham crown court.
Afterwards, Atkinson’s family linked the killing of their loved one to the long -running struggles of black British communities. In a statement, the family said: “We pay tribute to all the bereaved families of black men who have died at the hands of the police and whose fight for justice has not led to successful prosecutions.
“It shouldn’t take the death of a famous footballer for the criminal justice system to work properly and we hope that more families can secure justice in future regardless of whether the deceased is a high profile person.
“As his fellow footballers take the knee, we hope that they will honour the memory of Dalian.”
Monk, who serves with the West Mercia force, is the first British police officer in more than three decades to be convicted of manslaughter during the course of his duties.
Dalian Atkinson died in 2016 aged 48. Photograph: Karen Wright/AP
His conviction came after he set upon Atkinson on 15 August 2016. Police were called to a disturbance with Atkinson acting in an erratic and out of character fashion having gone to Meadow Close, Telford, where his father lived.
The Atkinson family said in their statement after sentencing: “PC Monk used horrendous violence against Dalian, who was in an extremely vulnerable position in mental health crisis and needed help.
“This was a callous attack and a terrible abuse of a police officer’s position of trust. He then failed to give a full and honest account of what happened, including at his trial. We are pleased that all these factors have been reflected in the sentence.”
The Atkinson family also condemned the decision to let Monk stay in the police when in 2011 he was found to have committed gross misconduct for failing to fully declare past criminal cautions he received before joining the police: “We were shocked to learn that PC Monk was not sacked in February 2011 for gross misconduct for his dishonesty; he should never have been working for the police in August 2016 and Dalian should not have died.”
The late-night incident involving police officers and Atkinson, 48, lasted six minutes.
The judge said he accepted that the officer was dealing with a difficult situation that evening with Atkinson in a “form of psychotic state” and being threatening.
Inman said: “For five minutes you were dealing with a very unpredictable and no doubt frightening situation where you were confronted by a man who had to be restrained and controlled because of the level of threat he posed … It was thereafter, when Mr Atkinson was on the floor that you used force that went beyond that which was reasonable in the circumstances.”
Atkinson had shouted he was the “Messiah”, smashed glass in a door and the judge said Monk had tried to calm him down.
The judge accepted Monk’s genuine remorse and that the excessive violence he used was out of character, with senior colleagues praising his work as an officer.
Atkinson was kicked with such force that his blood was found in the laces of Monk’s police-issue boots, and imprints from them found on the forehead of the former Aston Villa striker.
One witness said when Atkinson was kicked while on the ground he head snapped back.
Monk was seen with his boot rested on Atkinson’s head. Atkinson by then was barely conscious and would be pronounced dead within 70 minutes.
The judge said Monk’s time in prison would be more difficult because he was a police officer, but his job also was an aggravating factor.
Inman said: “The public entrust powers to the police which they expect to be used for the common good of society.
“The sentence must reflect the importance of maintaining public confidence in our police. You have let yourself and the force down. Although they were difficult, you failed to act appropriately in the circumstances as they developed and you used a degree of force in delivering two kicks to the head which was excessive and which were a cause of Mr Atkinson’s death.”
After his conviction, Monk is expected to face a fasttrack disciplinary hearing and be sacked from the police, which he joined in 2002.
The judge told Monk he would be eligible for release after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
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