02 December 2023 , 20:13
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Gareth Southgate insists England have got the big-game players to win the Euros next summer.
Southgate insisted Harry Kane is every bit as important to England as Lionel Messi is to Argentina and Kylian Mbappe to France. And one of England’s opponents next summer, Serbia boss Dragan Stojkovic, also insisted that Jude Bellingham is destined to be the best player in the world.
It immediately marks down England as one of the favourites as they drew Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia in their Euros group and now know their fixture schedule for next summer. Southgate insists they can handle the extra pressure and have got enough quality to win the tournament after moving up to third in the FIFA rankings behind Argentina and France.
Southgate said: "They are used to playing in big matches together and individually so we are excited and all looking forward to the summer.
"Players do lift you. Argentina are ranked number one in the world, France are ranked number two in the world, good players make better coaches, make good teams, of course we all want to play our part. But in the end the game is about players and you need good ones if you're going to win football matches.
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"Harry is a fabulous player, the games are a little bit different at the moment at Bayern (Munich), they dominate the games so much that he's playing a lot higher so it's interesting to see that, but, yeah, nobody needs to tell us to have Harry Kane in our team. He’s a very, very special player, again, he's won so many games for us, not just with his goals, which are an obvious factor, but his play, his passing ability, the way he leads the line, we're fortunate to have to have him.
"We are hugely excited to be part of the tournament. We are getting used to these big games so we are ready for that expectation and we hope we can give our supporters some more brilliant nights as I think we have in the last few tournaments."
Stojkovic added: "At the moment Bellingham is very close to being the best, and he is going to be the best. He made a good choice to go to Real Madrid to get the Golden Ball (Ballon d’Or) as the best player, only at Real Madrid can he do that. The guy is amazing, absolutely fantastic and he’s only 20-years-old. If England goes to the final and wins the championship he’s going to be the best player of Europe, definitely."
Southgate attended the draw in Hamburg (Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)Do you think England will win Euro 2024? Let us know in the comments below!
Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand admitted his side are out for revenge after losing to England in the Euros at Wembley after a controversial late penalty. Hjulmand said: "I still wake up at night thinking about that match.
"Obviously, when you are that close, I think it is something you will always remember and will always carry with you... so that one hurts. Really, really, a lot. We will now see if we can do it better in Frankfurt. Obviously it is always there."
Meanwhile, England are set to pick a remote five-star hotel with three golf courses as their training base for Euro 2024. Southgate has always picked venues away from the spotlight and his preferred choice is Golfresort Weimarer Land near the town of Blankenhain, which is 90 minutes from Leipzig in East Germany.
The luxury 94-room resort costs £300-a-night for a suite, has two 18-hole golf courses, a nine-hole course and two swimming pools, seven restaurants and two full-size football pitches.