Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand agree on England after 'tough watch'

17 June 2024 , 07:52

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Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand agree on England after 'tough watch'

Former England stars Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand agreed the second half of the Euro 2024 game against Serbia wasn't pleasant viewing.

Gareth Southgate's team went ahead early in their first game of the tournament, with Jude Bellingham arriving late to power home a header. That proved to be the only goal of the game, though, despite Harry Kane having an effort tipped onto the woodwork.

The result is a repeat of the Euro 2020 opener at Wembley, when Raheem Sterling scored the only goal of the game as England beat Croatia. On that occasion, Gareth Southgate's men made it all the way to the final, conceding just twice in the whole tournament.

Considering the competition, another run to the final this time around would undoubtedly count as an achievement for Southgate and his squad. However, there's arguably more to the stylistic complaints than it simply not being easy on the eye.

Shearer was on commentary duty for the game, and admitted at full-time that he considered it a "tough watch". Ferdinand, who was on punditry duty in the BBC studio, agreed with his compatriot.

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"Alan Shearer said it in commentary there, we suffered," the former Manchester United defender said. "We seem to lack a bit of composure in the moments. And it did get a little bit hairy at times.

Gareth Southgate reflected on England's performance after the win (Anadolu via Getty Images)

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"But I think you have to take what you can from the from that game, clean sheet, a new [centre-back] pairing in it... A win's a win. It's not how you start at all, but it's how you finish."

Speaking after the game, England boss Southgate took positives from the workout his team was given by Serbia. "They are a strong team. We had to suffer a bit which I think is really good for us," he said.

"I think to defend the box the way we did was really good for us. I was really pleased with a lot of the play. Second half we didn't keep it as well as I would have liked but to get the win is very important."

Jude Bellingham scored the only goal of the game as England beat Serbia (Getty Images)

England became the first team at the Euros to score just once and still win, but Southgate remained confident in his team's firepower. He started the game with Harry Kane flanked by Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka, with Jarrod Bowen replacing Saka for the final 15 minutes.

"I am confident we will score goals," he continued. "Playing against a back five it is not easy to create chances and we did. I liked the fact we had to suffer without the ball because that is an area we have worked on a lot this week. We were obviously much better than last week at doing that."

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Tom Victor