England will face Slovakia in the Euro 2024 Round of 16 in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday.
Gareth Southgate's men were assured of a place in the knockout stages of the tournament prior to their final group game against Slovenia, where they laboured to an underwhelming 0-0 draw which led to a portion of fans turning against the Three Lions boss.
England banked five points from their three games to top Group C and avoid a showdown with Germany in the knockout stages. With a meeting against one of the tournament's best third-placed teams lined up, it had seemed likely that England would face the Netherlands after they finished below Austria and France in Group D.
But after a tense night waiting on the outcome of the final group games, it's Slovakia who England will face for a place in the quarter-finals after Georgia beat Portugal 2-0.
Despite heading to Germany as one of the pre-tournament favourites, England have massively underwhelmed in Germany and were booed for the second successive match after a chastening 0-0 draw with Slovenia on Tuesday night.
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A portion of angry fans were also seen throwing empty cups in the direction of Southgate as he applauded them post-match.
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Speaking on Wednesday, England captain Harry Kane urged fans to stick with the team and vowed that the best is yet to come after they also failed to convince against Denmark.
Slovakia finished third in Group E behind Romania and Belgium (Marco Steinbrenner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)He told the Lions’ Den: “I feel like we have more in the tank for sure if you look at the last couple of tournaments especially beating Germany and then Ukraine in the Euros and beating Senegal in the World Cup.
“We have had some of our best performances in the knockout rounds. Whether that's because teams have to come out a little bit more and they have to attack a little bit more as well, who knows? But we've seen to have played some really good games in the knockouts, and we're hoping we can take that into this tournament as well.
“Like I touched on earlier, the tournament split into two halves, almost without sounding rude the group stage now is irrelevant. We've done what we had to do. We learned from the games. We learned from some mistakes.
“We take the positives from what we've done well. But that's in the past. No one really cares about that now. Now it's about what we do in the knockouts.
“That's what we're going to be remembered for. That's what we've been remembered for in the past tournaments as well. That's our mindset. Like I said, we're relaxed.
“In these major tournaments, you're climbing a mountain. I feel like we're halfway up the mountain right now. We're at that stage where there's still a long way to go. We've been away for a while, so some players need a bit of time to chill.”
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