EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020 - ENGLAND vs CROATIA 13th JUNE 2021

The delayed European Championship will begin on Friday 11th June 2021 as ITALY kick off against TURKEY the opening game in Group A takes place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. This championship was always going to see games being played in multiple countries there is no single 'host' nation although Wembley will be used for the semi finals and the final itself. England begin their campaign in Group D with a 'home' fixture at Wembley against world cup finalists Croatia, kick off is 2pm and the game will be shown live in Uk on BBC Tv.
Naturally we are thinking of Christian Eriksen and his family after the disturbing scenes during the Denmark vs Finland game on Saturday, pleased to read he's stable in hospital and responding thanks to the quick action of the medical teams and his teammates, keep well.

Team News
England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out of Euro 2020 with a thigh injury. The Liverpool right-back hurt himself in the closing stages of Wednesday's friendly against Austria and a scan revealed he has suffered a quad tear. The 22-year-old is expected to be side-lined for around six weeks and will return to his club for rehabilitation.

Manager Gareth Southgate has named Brighton and Hove Albion's Ben White as his squad replacement, hopefully we don't lose anymore players, am already worried that we take players who are carrying an injury, Jack Grealish springs to mind although he was one of the better players on show in the game against Austria but will he last the tournament with the amount of kicks he gets.

England will face Croatia today in Group D, which will also contain Czech Republic and the auld enemy Scotland who will be next up on Friday evening, but let's take one game at a time.

England XI  1    [Sterling 57']
Pickford (Gk),  Walker,  Stones,  Mings,  Trippier,  Phillips,  Rice,  Foden,  Mount,  Sterling,  Kane (c).

Croatia XI  0
Livakovic (Gk),  Vrsaljko,  Vida,  Caleta-Car,  Gvardiol,  Modric (c),  Brozovic,  Kovacic,  Kramaric,  Rebic,  Perisic.

Head to Head
We've played against Croatia ten times in all Internationals (including friendlies) winning five, drawing two and losing three. And while the most recent of those wins came in the 'UEFA Nations League' in 2018, it's the 2-1 semi final defeat in the last World Cup in Russia that still really hurts. 

2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia have lost just two of their last 11 Euros games. Elsewhere in the same group Scotland will begin their campaign at Hampden Park against Czech Republic on Monday 14th (2pm). While Wales were in action in Group A on Saturday afternoon (2pm) in the Olympic Stadium in Baku which ended 1 - 1 thanks to a Kieffer Moore header though man of the match was surely goalkeeper Danny Ward for Wales.

We will update later with confirmed starting line ups, and will follow the fortunes of the home nations this summer. A good win for England, even if the result was narrow we had the best of the opportunities and a good finish by Raheem Sterling to give England their first opening game success.