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England plays Italy, North Macedonia, and Malta in Group C of Euro 2024 qualification. Gareth Southgate stated that England should use Italy’s failure to qualify for last year’s World Cup as a warning not to take their place at Euro 2024 for granted. He said, “Italy’s recent history is without a doubt a warning for us,” said Southgate. Our first game after the Euros was against Hungary, and I believe we gave one of our most impressive performances. England overcame their Euro 2020 disappointment with a 4-0 win over Hungary.
Gareth Southgate said, “Our mentality from the start was positive. I don’t expect that mentality to be a problem, but it reminds me that these early qualifying stages are crucial. I can remember us scoring a late goal against Poland at Wembley with no fans, and people would have taken that victory for granted, but it was such a significant moment in qualifying. We had several of those in our previous qualification campaigns. Although some of those groups looked comfortable, there were plenty of nights where that wasn’t the case.”
Southgate challenged his players to break new ground while recognising the need to start again at the beginning of another tournament cycle. “They know the required level; they know they can compete at that level,” said Southgate, who earned his 50th win as England boss in his 82nd match. Then whatever we’ve done in the past is irrelevant tomorrow night because we have to start again. We must work hard to qualify again; it is an excellent fixture to get that underway.
“In a nutshell, it is the sort of challenge we have to take on and the type of game we have to start winning. “We have for some time, but we must continue trying to do that. That said, we haven’t won here since 1961, so it is another bit of history we are trying to break down. That is an exciting challenge for this team because they have knocked down so many of those barriers in the past.”