St James Park: England started off their preparations for the European Championship in a dominant fashion, registering a 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in their first international friendly at St James Park. Cole Palmer scored his first goal for the Three Lions through a penalty kick in the 60th minute of the game. It was just seconds before Harry Kane, their first choice penalty kick taker was subbed on.
Kane made a full return to action against Bosnia after having missed the last two matches of the season with Bayern Munich through injury.
Southgate has revealed that Kane wanted to take the penalty ahead Palmer but the England boss turned down the request.
“Our plan today was half an hour and he’ll start on Friday. He had the audacity to ask to come on and to score the penalty which was never going to happen! The great thing is we’ve got through the last few days with no new problems,” said Southgate on Radio 5 live.
The team fielded a majority of their youngsters and rested their regular starters in order to get a clearer picture on the Euros squad selection. Southgate has named a 33-man preliminary squad and will need to trim it down to 26 before June 7 which is the deadline for the squad submission.
“That’s really important. We needed to get through these first matches to get a clearer picture. The guys rehabbing have done well. [Bosnia] were an opponent that were dogged, determined.
Ollie Watkins will be rueing another missed opportunity as he failed to hit the back of the net. Despite performing brilliantly for Aston Villa, he has constantly failed to convert his chances at the national level.
“Physically, it was a good workout but in the end, a good performance. The scoreline reflected the performance. We had a lot of fresh players to bring in. Once you break that resistance then it starts to come.
Jack Grealish proved many pundits wrong as he came off the bench to provide assists to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane in the final 10 minutes of the game to put the game to bed.
“A lot players didn’t have many caps that started so it was going to be a sticky start. I thought the intensity of the game was good. Winning and clean sheets are good habits to have.”
