Euro Ball: England are the champions? As long as Southgate is the manager, the Three Lions are still three meows

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2024-06-09 18:14Published in Sichuan

As for the prediction of the winner of this European Championship, the major football professional media and authoritative data agencies are surprisingly consistent: they all put the Three Lions England team first.

One family is not optimistic, but ten thousand families are optimistic, but they are really optimistic.

So, after more than half a century (58 years after the first World Cup), will the originator of modern football, who has not tasted a major championship and never won a European Cup, realize that great and beautiful wish to bring football home?

The truth always hurts, but it's still going to be said – no.

According to the latest data from the authoritative player value agency "German Transfer Market", the total value of England's players is the highest among the 24 participating teams, reaching 1.52 billion euros, 270 million euros more than the other favorite to win the championship, France.

This advantage can be described as a unique existence. Mbappe's worth is 180 million euros, which is equivalent to 1.5 more Mbappe, but the championship is more than the value of the scene? Obviously, certainly not.

Not to mention, the top three in the Qatar World Cup are: England (1.34 billion euros), Brazil (1.05 billion euros) and Portugal (940 million euros), but these three teams did not even enter the semi-finals. Therefore, the value of this thing is ethereal, and it can only be used as a reference, which is better than nothing.

One thing to say, with the squad configuration, player strength and age structure of this England team, it is indeed time to produce results and win the championship. However, a well-known shortcoming, the Three Lions are destined to collapse again and shatter their dreams.

Napoleon said: A flock of sheep led by a lion can defeat a flock of lions led by a sheep.

The England team is nicknamed the Three Lions, and the British stars can indeed be called a group of lions, but manager Southgate is also an out-and-out sheep. Despite being the best Three Lions manager in nearly 30 years, Gareth Southgate led the team back to the last four of the World Cup after 28 years, and even led the team to the final of the European Championship for the first time.

However, Southgate also perfectly illustrates the true meaning of the barrel effect – he is the Three Lions' biggest shortcoming, and the semi-finals are his limits.

Two World Cups, one European Cup, Southgate has a higher chance than his predecessors to lead the Three Lions to a higher level, and even to the top, but his mediocre qualifications, conformism, and lack of tactics have made the Three Lions mediocre after all.

In the World Cup in Russia, Southgate, as the interim coach, relied on the group advantage to avoid many strong opponents and advance to the semi-finals all the way after qualifying from the group, which is eye-catching. Just when the outside world was generally optimistic that England and France would meet in the final, facing Croatia in the semi-finals, Southgate took the initiative to recover after taking the lead, surrendering the midfield, and finally reversed the elimination.

If it is understandable to lead a team to a major tournament for the first time, it is really to blame for the European Championship final being stolen by Italy on their home turf.

In that final, Southgate had an unknown number of cards better than Mancini, and had a dream start to control the game. Only 2 minutes into the opening game, England took the lead, but Southgate did not take advantage of the victory to chase and end the suspense of the game early, but took the initiative to slow down, focusing on stability, and there was no decent shot on goal in the first half.

After being equalised by Italy, Southgate was slow to make substitutions and didn't even think about finishing the game before extra time. But that's not the most desperate, he made a series of substitutions in stoppage time in extra time to be called a champion.

Referring to England's performances in previous penalty shoot-outs, it is unknown where Southgate got such courage, and reality punished him harshly - the specially sent Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho missed back-to-back penalties while leading the penalty shoot-out, while Saka, who came on at the end of the day under great pressure, was only 19 years old at the time......

What's even more outrageous is that while the Italian players were cheering, Southgate gathered the players together and made a stirring speech.

Failure is the mother of success, but what awaits England is an even more painful defeat at the World Cup in Qatar - in the quarter-finals against France, Southgate was completely led by the nose by his opponent Didier Deschamps......

Gareth Southgate then showed the fans what he really is when he relegated England from the Nations League.

Don't look at the "two kings + four twos", as long as Southgate is still the manager of the Three Lions, the championship will not be able to go home!

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