It’s the big one today as England face Germany in the last 16 of Euro 2020 – live on talkSPORT.
We will bring you all the build-up and the latest from both camps ahead of the mammoth Wembley showdown, while Jose Mourinho will be on talkSPORT Breakfast between 9am and 10am to give his verdict.
Plus, we will bring you the fall-out to France’s shock exit from the tournament at the hands of Switzerland, with Kylian Mbappe missing the decisive penalty in the shootout, as well all the top football news and gossip.
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talkSPORT’s England correspondent Faye Carruthers wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t ask Gareth Southgate about 1996.
But, as expected, she got a pretty emphatic answer from the England boss ahead of the last-16 clash with Germany at Euro 2020 on Tuesday night.
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Southgate has his shot at revenge – 25 years after his missed penalty cost England against Germany in the semi-finals
Build-up to the match has been dominated by reflection on Southgate’s decisive penalty miss against the Germans at Euro ’96, when the hosts were eliminated at Wembley in the semi-finals.
Revenge would surely taste sweet for the Three Lions manager, however he insists his players really shouldn’t care.
“Good grief no, Faye! I don’t think we’ll be relying on that,” he told talkSPORT when asked about his players seeking vengeance on his behalf.
“I’ve just said to them this week ‘look, the montages have been up on half-time during matches – forget it, it’s irrelevant for you, it’s of no importance to you what’s happened’.
“I did make the point to Jude (Bellingham) what happened in 1970 is probably not high on your list of priorities.
“So, no, this is about them. This is about them having a chance to achieve something, and certainly not for me to take any shine off of that.
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Jude Bellingham was born seven years after Southgate’s penalty miss
“I want to get to a quarter-final just as much as anybody else does, so motivation is high, of course, but for the players they’ll have their individual motivations and the collective.
“They’ve got a very strong bond and they want to do it for each other.”
Southgate understands the focus on the famous rivalry and his Euro 96 heartache – but repeatedly underlined how the players are focused on making their own history rather than worrying about the past.
He added: “This team, I’ve said for a long time, have had so many unique achievements and my focus is on this team and helping them to succeed.
“What’s happened for me as a player is totally irrelevant in terms of tomorrow’s game, so of course I’m always motivated to want to win.
“It’s an opportunity to get to the quarter-final of a European Championship and it’s the sort of big game that we want to come out on the top side on.
“But anything other than that, it would be wrong for me to be even speaking about.
“This is about our players. This is their moment and it’s their opportunity.”
The 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cup exits to Germany also mean little to a group who have the chance to help England record just their second European Championship knockout win.
“I mean, it’s an incredible record that, really,” said Southgate, who played in that Euro 96 quarter-final spot-kick triumph against Spain.
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Germany thrashed England in the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup – the last time they met in a major tournament
“I think it’s something we’ve talked about a lot as a team for the last four years. This team has that opportunity.
“I think in previous eras we have always talked about the past, teams and their records and baggage and everything else. And there’s no reason for these boys to feel that way.
“Most weren’t born when a lot of those games happened. It’s an irrelevance for them, so I think we’re all looking forward to the game tomorrow.
“We know it’s a fantastic game to be involved in and a real opportunity for us to progress to a quarter-final.
“Big opponent with excellent pedigree and great experience, but a game we’re really looking forward to.”
England vs Germany is live on talkSPORT tonight, kick-off 5pm
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Former Germany international Stefan Effenberg does not envisage his nation having many problems getting past England in their Euro 2020 last-16 showdown on Tuesday night.
The pair go head-to-head at Wembley in a mouthwatering encounter at Wembley, which is LIVE on talkSPORT, with neither team setting the world alight at this summer’s tournament to date.
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Effenberg doesn’t think England will be much of a threat to Germany
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, while Sterling was on target again as England beat the Czech Republic 1-0 to top Group D.
And Effenberg says he’s seen little evidence to suggest that Southgate’s Three Lions will be a major threat to the Germans.
“I think England will be our easiest opponents so far,” the former Germany midfielder told Sport1.
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Kane is yet to find the net at Euro 2020
“In the group, we had world champions France, European champions Portugal and Hungary as incredibly difficult opponents. We survived it.”
The former Bayern Munich midfielder also questioned Harry Kane’s influence at the tournament to date, with the Tottenham striker yet to get off the mark amid increased speculation over his club future.
He continued: “The English have not yet really had an impact on the tournament and the attack around Harry Kane – which distinguishes them – has not appeared at all.
“So I’m sure we will win the game. The pressure is on the English.
“You play at home. Even if it’s a young team, they are expected to win the title.”
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Kylian Mbappé was France’s sure thing. That is why he was fifth in their list of penalty takers and is why, when he stepped up to keep them in Euro 2020, the thought he might miss felt like too heady a twist in the narrative. Things like that have simply not happened to Mbappé during a young career of rare accomplishment, but here came the kind of horror that exposes even the preternaturally gifted as flesh-and-blood mortals: Yann Sommer, Switzerland’s exceptional goalkeeper, smelled weakness and read his intentions correctly, diving right and clawing the spot-kick away. France were out; their delirious opponents had made their own slice of history and a tournament of unstinting drama took its least plausible turn yet.
Both these teams had the game in their hands during the 90 minutes; both proceeded to throw it away and eventually it was Mbappé upon whom time froze. In the second half of extra time, a period to which France subjected themselves by criminally spurning a two-goal lead in the last 10 minutes, Mbappé had a chance to cast their previous jitters aside when Paul Pogba sent him through down the inside left. But Mbappé sliced badly wide and into the side netting; perhaps that, as much as the indignation from 12 yards that would follow, was the moment when his night’s fate became obvious.
The recriminations will be loud and long. Didier Deschamps will be lambasted for reacting to a lack of fit left-backs by switching to a back three, a system whose weaknesses an eager and competent Switzerland set about examining with glee. Mbappé will also have to avoid brickbats, even if anyone can fluff their lines in a shootout: grumblings about his ego, or at least the perception Deschamps has overly kowtowed to his status as France’s star turn, have rumbled throughout this tournament.
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It was a surprise to see him over a first-half free-kick, which he battered into the wall, given he had enjoyed little success on set pieces in the previous three games. Perhaps that signposted what was to come; maybe it was an indulgence too far to offer him on a plate what could have been the game’s telling intervention.
The overarching point is that France had this coming. They did not start the game badly but had already wobbled at the back when Haris Seferovic, relishing a non-challenge from Clément Lenglet, met the excellent Steven Zuber’s cross and headed in. Lenglet, drafted in by Deschamps to facilitate his formation change, had a shocking first half and the decision to replace him with Kingsley Coman at half-time must have been among the easiest of the manager’s tenure.
It was intended to reverse a call that will now be viewed among his very worst. Switzerland should have made Deschamps’ volte-face irrelevant when Zuber was scythed down by Benjamin Pavard in the box and, via a correct intervention by VAR, they won a penalty. But Ricardo Rodriguez opted for placement rather than his trusty sledgehammer of a left foot; Hugo Lloris saved and then France went to work.
Yann Sommer saves Kylian Mbappé’s penalty to win the shootout 5-4. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters
What happened next showed why France should not lose against any of this summer’s opposition on paper, but also demonstrates exactly why they have. They quickly scored three glorious goals, two of them coming within four minutes. First Karim Benzema tamed what appeared to be a wayward Mbappé through ball with a bewildering flick of the heel, sending himself through for a masterful dink over Sommer. Then a rat-a-tat of passes between Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann ended with the latter dinking across and Benzema, who had come alive, heading in from on the line.
Pogba was running the show by now and proceeded to cap the lot, swishing in a vicious, dipping curler from 25 yards. Switzerland seemed to have had their fun and missed their chance: France, imperious now, were over the hill.
But in this tournament France have played like a team of patches, of flashes and moments, of breathtaking pieces of spontaneity and synchronicity that never quite spread out over a sustained spell. The burst of high quality they managed should have been enough here but then everything turned again. From nowhere Seferovic, such a curious striker but one who constantly shows up where others might not, headed in emphatically from Kevin Mbabu’s cross. Then, with the minutes ticking down, the outstanding Granit Xhaka released Mario Gavranovic, a substitute, for a cool check inside and a smart finish.
Mario Gavranovic celebrates his late equaliser for Switzerland, who came from 3-1 down to force extra time. Photograph: Daniel Mihăilescu/AP
This half-full arena was throbbing now. Coman struck the bar with the final kick; into an additional 30 minutes we went and Sommer, saving from Pavard and Olivier Giroud, helped ensure Switzerland had the shootout chance they deserved.
Mbappé’s blunders will ring out loudest, though, not that Switzerland will care as they approach their first tournament quarter-final since 1954. They had defied logic and form, much like the entire night.
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“Gareth Southgate, the whole of England is with you!” Is it, though? As Southgate prepares to send his injury-free, defensively unbreached, quietly purposeful England team into the last-16 tie against Germany on Tuesday night, two things stand out.
First, it is hard to recall such a talented, well-set England team approaching a tournament knockout tie so grudgingly praised in their own country. Welcome to England 2021, a place where even the football feels a little seasick right now. And second, like it or not, rail against the simplicity, draw attention instead to the process if you must – but this is a moment that will define the progress of Southgate’s England.
It is a poignant detail of Three Lions 98 – uncool younger brother of the original version – that its opening notes are Jonathan Pearce’s shouted message of doom as Southgate, England’s sixth penalty-taker, stepped up to side-foot the ball at Andreas Köpke in June 1996.
Southgate seemed an amusingly minor figure at the time, an element in the wider cosmic joke of England football. Even our operatic failures are enacted by nice men called Gareth from Thornton Heath. It is a further oddity now that his careful, quietly impressive five-year reign as manager should have become another divisive note in the popular culture.
Such is the temperature of the times it is hard to avoid the sense there are some, for whom Southgate represents the wrong kind of England – cautious, safe, unconcerned with either creeping Marxism or the cultural importance of Releasing Jack – who might feel a tinge of validation should England’s Euros end on Tuesday.
The whole of England is with you. Kind of. Until it isn’t.
Harry Kane puts Harry Maguire through his defensive paces at St George’s Park. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP
There is at least a reassuringly bold end note here, a moment of ultimacy for the Age of Gareth. Defeat at Wembley will unleash a backwash of gruelling negativity. But victory will provide an unarguable sheen of authority, validating every decision made en route to that point.
Nobody seriously expects England to win tournaments. But this is eminently doable. Squint a little and England are playing a team who have conceded five goals at these Euros already, who lost at home against North Macedonia and were thrashed 6-0 by Spain, whose own manager is in the zombified late days of his own reign, and whose chief attacking threat managed four Premier League goals in 27 games last season.
It is only the shadow game, the noise behind the noise, that makes Germany at Wembley an Everest to be scaled. But then, things such as history and emotion do matter on these occasions.
This week Kai Havertz called this game “a meeting of equals” but it isn’t really. Talk of a genuine head-to-head here brings to mind Cliff Richard’s recent autobiography where he talked “for the first time” about his deep personal rivalry with Elvis Presley, who he never met or had anything to do with.
'Everyone is focused': Kai Havertz wants Germany to 'upset England' – video
Could the shadowy hand of The King have been behind Cliff’s “jinxed” US tours where no one bought any tickets? How else to explain the fact Elvis was “never home” when Cliff turned up at Graceland, leaving his feared rival to pay for a guided tour instead? England-Germany has shades of Cliff-Elvis dynamic, serial winners versus hopeful not-quites.
England have won two of their past 10 competitive matches against Germany or West Germany. And get this: the England men’s football team have only once in their history beaten in a knockout tournament game a nation that had previously won the World Cup. Once! That victory was the 1966 World Cup final.
The identity of their opponents, the weight, the heft of playing “The Germans” comes into this. But the real baggage England carry is their own 70-year tale of tournament failure – failure that stems not from some psychological blockage, or from the war, or bad luck, but from not being good enough when it mattered.
England are good enough, and Germany bad enough, to break that sequence. This is also, lest we forget, a team that has tended to swipe those cobwebs away.
Under Southgate, England won a World Cup penalty shootout. They reached a semi-final despite having no genuine world stars. For those who feel an urge to say “well they only beat B-listers”, England have also failed to beat their fellow B-listers many times. See: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, USA and so on. Progress is actually winning these games. It is misguided English exceptionalism that says only Brazil and Spain really count.
Germany have clearly dipped out of that front rank. Other opponents have exposed some vulnerability. There is even a clear indication of how England might try to score against Jogi Löw’s team. Look back and every goal Germany have conceded at this Euro Championship has come via a diagonal pass into space down the side of the centre-backs.
In the main this has been on the attacking left side. France’s winning goal, Kylian Mbappé’s disallowed goal, even the Cristiano Ronaldo breakaway: these all involved a pass into space left vacant by a glitch in the way Germany’s three-man backline intersects with its wing-backs.
Hungary’s goals both came from long diagonal passes, aggressive running and slack defence. There is a route to goal here, one that Raheem Sterling in particular might try to exploit given his strength is the ability to veer into exactly that space on the inside left channel.
Again, much will depend on the level of England’s attacking ambition. There will be the usual call to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of Gareth. The best way of winning against a team whose weakness is defence might well be to attack.
At the same time Southgate will note that Germany have also tended to score via crosses from advanced positions. This may or may not be a moment to go for the throat. But the battle on the flanks, and the ability to counterpunch in those spaces could be a factor.
The stage is clear for both teams. Havertz’s knee injury has healed. Only Antonio Rüdiger (cold) and Ilkay Gündogan (head injury) sat out the final training session in Bavaria, while Robin Gosens is also a doubt. For Southgate and England, five years down the line, a moment of clarity is, for better or worse, at hand.
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Joachim Löw will be forced into late fitness calls on Ilkay Gündogan, Antonio Rüdiger and Robin Gosens before Germany’s last-16 meeting with England at Wembley on Tuesday. The trio, ordinarily starters, were among the party that arrived in London on Monday but doubts remain over their availability.
Löw explained Rüdiger and Gosens are suffering from “small infections” and “tiredness” which the coach likened to a cold, with Gündogan seeking to shake off a head injury. “We decide with the doctors on match day,” said Löw. “Maybe they [Rüdiger and Gosens] will get up and feel well but maybe it will get worse overnight so we need to wait. I don’t know if these three will be at our disposal, I cannot say that. But [if not] we will have other solutions.”
In specific reference to Gündogan, the German coach said: “Ilkay suffered a cranial bruise. He felt a little bit better today, yesterday he still felt a little dizzy especially in training so we said we had to stop his load. Today he did a good job so we will decide tomorrow.”
Personnel disruption is the last thing Löw needs amid criticism relating to Germany’s performance thus far. With the 61-year-old due to leave his position at the conclusion of his team’s run, perhaps it was telling that German media asked Löw whether he had contemplated the fixture at Wembley being his last in the job.
“I thought for two seconds about that when one of your colleagues asked and now I am asked again,” said Löw sharply. “I don’t think about it. I have so many other thoughts in my head at the moment. There is great anticipation, it is for this you become a coach. My passion is to compete in matches such as this. My whole focus is on the match and hoping we succeed.
“All the matches which have taken place between England and Germany, you talk years after about them. This is a match that electrifies everybody. It is in or out, now or never. There is only a winner and a loser so there is a lot at stake. I can feel that we are highly motivated – all the players are – and we have analysed the England side. We are looking forward to this great encounter.”
Manuel Neuer will join Harry Kane in wearing a rainbow captain’s armband for a game that has routinely had friction as a backdrop. Germany’s players will take the knee before kick-off along with their English counterparts. “We want to show solidarity with the English team,” said Neuer. “We did not really have to discuss it a lot.”
Löw fully backed the pre-match action of his players. “I have said it many times: we stand for all these values and want to show that,” he said. “We discussed it within the team, they decided and told us they want to take the knee. This is a great sign and a great signal.”
What threat Kane may or may not pose during the game is a subject for great debate. Addressing the Tottenham forward’s barren tournament, Neuer warned: “It is always a dangerous sign if a striker waits for a goal. He will be completely motivated, 100%. We know him; he is very dangerous in the box, two-footed, great in the air and dangerous from set pieces.”
Löw, while also hailing Kane’s capabilities, played down the notion of his defenders paying special attention to the 27-year-old. “He can score goals out of every situation,” said the coach. “Special measures? Of course we have to be focused but England also has Sterling, Foden, Mount, Sancho, Rashford. They have a lot of strong attacking players. Their attack is a real threat.”
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Scott Parker has been confirmed as Bournemouth’s new manager after leaving Fulham by mutual consent.
The 40-year-old’s departure from Craven Cottage was swiftly followed by confirmation that he will succeed Jonathan Woodgate at the south coast club on a three-year deal.
“I believe this is the perfect fit for both parties,” Parker told Bournemouth’s website.
“I’m familiar with Bournemouth because of my relationship with Harry Arter. It’s a football club I know well from watching him over the years.
“The ethos, the reputation, the journey and the challenge here is something that’s very exciting for me and my staff. We want to build a team the fans can be proud of and one they feel represents them. We can’t wait to get started.”
The former midfielder took caretaker charge of Fulham in February 2019, and was unable to keep the west London side out of the relegation zone. After being appointed manager on a permanent basis in May that year, Fulham secured promotion back to the top flight after beating Brentford in the play-off final.
However, Fulham’s Premier League return lasted less than a year, with their relegation confirmed by a 2-0 home defeat to Burnley, with three games to play.
As well as Parker the following members of the coaching team have also left Fulham: Matt Wells (first-team coach), Rob Burch (goalkeeping coach), Alastair Harris (head of sports science), Jonathan Hill (first-team match analyst) and Charlie Moore (lead physical performance coach).
The Fulham chairman, Shahid Khan, said: “Through promotion and relegation alike, Scott has always enjoyed my support as our head coach. Scott’s departure does nothing to shake my confidence, however. We will hire a new head coach who is capable of achieving our goal of promotion and will be committed to Fulham and its supporters. And we will field a squad that will respond, compete and win. Onward.”
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