Euro 2024 qualifiers: When are England’s fixtures and how to watch on TV
Gareth Southgate has welcomed back Manchester City’s treble heroes to the England squad but is likely to resist starting his “serial winners” in Friday’s European Championship qualifier in Malta.
Jack Grealish has led City’s celebrations since beating Inter Milan to win the Champions League at the weekend, the festivities including a parade in Manchester on Monday evening. The midfielder, and City team-mates Kyle Walker, John Stones, Phil Foden and Kalvin Phillips, joined up late at St George’s Park.
With Declan Rice having lifted the Europa Conference League at West Ham United, Southgate will have a raft of players who have enjoyed success this season, while the likes of Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings have celebrated European qualification.
“The manager always talks about your club experiences and adding to the group and we have a squad full of serial winners,” Mings said. “When you look around the European competitions and domestic competitions and the amount of players that were involved in those, it can only help.”
Jordan Henderson, who has previously won the Champions League with Liverpool, said: “It is a challenge for them now. With the season they have had and what they achieved, it will be tough for them to recover after the last few days.
“They will probably have a bit longer to recover than we did at Liverpool when we won the Champions League and then had the Nations League. I imagine they won’t be involved in the first game.”
When are the matches?
England play Malta away on Friday June 16. They then host North Macedonia on Monday June 19.
What time is kick-off?
Both fixtures kick off at 7.45pm.
What TV channel is it on?
Channel 4 has exclusive live coverage of all of England’s Euro 2024 qualifiers. Their broadcast will be presented by Jules Breach with Steve Bower the lead commentator. Robert Green, Joe Cole, Graeme Le Saux and Eni Aluko have been among their pundits for previous England matches.
Where are England playing?
The game in Malta will be played at their 16,997-capacity National Stadium. England’s home game against North Macedonia will be played at Old Trafford. The fixture was moved to Manchester due to Harry Styles concerts at Wembley.
Who is in England’s squad?
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale, Sam Johnstone
Defenders: Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Marc Guehi, Tyrone Mings, Luke Shaw
Midfielders: Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips, James Maddison, Conor Gallagher, Eberechi Eze
Forwards: Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Callum Wilson
Tyrone Mings earned his recall for his form with Villa, after a year out of the squad in which he lost his starting place for his club at the beginning of the campaign.
“It started being left out of the England squad but that was a whole summer of strange times, really,” Mings said. “Then sitting on the bench at Bournemouth and thinking, ‘I don’t know how all of this has happened in such a short space of time’.
“From the captaincy to not starting first game of the season. But then I look at the scenes at Villa Park on the last day of the season and to see how far the club have come and how far I’d come in terms of my personal journey over the course of the season was impressive.
“I genuinely believe every experience happens for a reason and even sitting there last summer thinking that I had fallen a long way from where I was, never did I think this was it, or there was no way back. I wasn’t taking it for granted, but you just sometimes need a kick up the backside, don’t you?”
Who has withdrawn from the England squad?
Brighton defender Lewis Dunk and Jude Bellingham are the latest players to be ruled out through injury. Bellingham will train alone at St George’s Park but will not play in the games, with the midfielder set to join Real Madrid in a big-money transfer this summer.
Levi Colwill, who played alongside Dunk at Brighton last season while on loan from Chelsea, replaced him in the squad.
Eberechi Eze will be pushing for an England debut over the two matches. He was in the provisional squad for the Euros two years ago but, as the text confirmation was waiting for him in the Crystal Palace dressing room, he suffered a ruptured Achilles in training.
“We were in training playing small-sided games, 5v5, and I received the ball and went to start running and felt a pop behind my ankle as though someone kicked me but there was no one there. So I knew it was serious,” he said.
“I had gone inside, had a little assessment from the doctor and said I had done my Achilles, and asked for my phone to tell my wife, I saw I had the message I was in the provisional squad for England. I understood I am doing the right things, I saw it as another hurdle on the way, so the focus is to keep going and keep pushing.”
Marcus Rashford looked to be nursing an injury by the end of the FA Cup final but is currently still in the squad.
What is the latest news?
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has criticised football’s authorities for overburdening players with June internationals scheduled after a long, World Cup-affected season.
“I don’t have any energy to think about next season, it’s impossible. We need a break, it’s too long,” Guardiola said after the Champions League final.
“Our players have international games now. UEFA and FIFA, think about it. The Premier League finished two or three weeks ago, now people have to come back. It’s too much. We will start from zero next season.”
What are the odds?
Malta vs England:
Malta 45/1
England 1/40
Draw 14/1
