England Euro 2024 LIVE: Latest news as Gareth Southgate ‘ready to go deep again’ to beat Switzerland

This may well be that great final challenge for Southgate. Many other teams at this Euros think England have by far the best squad but think he lacks that deeper understanding of fine tactical details. This can be a riposte to such criticism, but it might not need to be.

Even if any formation change only works to a certain degree, that can be enough. England only need to be more competent and compact. If they manage that, Bellingham’s goal can really have effect.

It can strengthen England’s resolve, as well as the belief that they can eventually find a way to win any game. That might not be sustainable over the length of a league season, but this isn’t a league season. It is now just three games for the trophy. England have more than enough match-winners for each of them, and they have now got through the worst of it. That will focus minds. Similarly, while it’s obviously better to have momentum and a working ideology in order to be tournament champions, star-laden teams can flail from game to game and then suddenly they’re in the final.

This might be the extra benefit of a figure like Bellingham, too, who just has this more assertive mentality. It is known that Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance documentary has been watched in the camp, and Bellingham has used conspicuously similar language about weaponising criticism.

There has been a lot of the latter. England have – for now – got past such negativity, to do the bare minimum required. That is another potential change.

It’s all asking a lot, but there’s now not that much left. It’s why single moments can surge into something huge.

That is why Southgate’s own reaction to the victory may be as important as anything. He is finally acting, and doing more than just changing one midfielder. England spent large parts of Wednesday working on a three-man backline. Some around the camp will finally get the approach they want if Southgate sticks with this. Part of this is admittedly because it has been forced on the manager. Marc Guehi’s suspension for a second booking means Southgate doesn’t want to directly expose someone as lacking in tournament experience in Ezri Konsa in that way, but that has also compounded existing thinking.

It has long looked increasingly obvious this is the way to go, and not just because something – anything – needed to change. An emotional lift alone wasn’t going to be enough.

A three-man backline inherently looks like it gives Southgate so many more options with the current squad. Don’t have a midfield? Ensure you don’t have to play through it in the same way, just like 2018. Very few left-footers, and no fit left-back? Just change it to a left wing-back with a licence to attack, so only one such player is needed. Phil Foden and Bellingham both want to play No 10? Put the two of them behind Harry Kane, without the same need to go wide. There are also more potential configurations of midfield, with added protection. Sometimes, a formation can just click, as happened in England in 1990.

It is still a big thing to do mid-tournament. It’s also different to how the formation was used across the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020, given there are now so many new player

The 2024 England have had all of those problems and worse. It’s not just been flat, but fatigued. It’s not just that the formation doesn’t work, but almost no part of the team does. There are imbalances everywhere. The press has been too cautious, with Southgate’s inherent conservatism ensuring the team don’t commit the extra player required. It has all made England statistically – and very visibly – the slowest team at Euro 2024.

By the same token, the players have persistently said the mood in the camp has been great, indirectly indicating nothing there needs changing… only to go out and play as if the weight of decades is upon them. They were even bickering on the pitch against Slovakia. A previous efficiency under Southgate seemed to have evaporated, clouded by so much second-guessing.

Can one strike, no matter how uplifting, really change all that? This is the duality to late goals, too. On one side, they are an emotional elixir. On the other, the fact they are even required shows fundamental problems in the team. England’s performance against Slovakia was after all just a continuation of what had come before. It was impossible not to watch that game and see where Switzerland could potentially take England apart, especially given what they’d done to Italy just the day before.

There are obvious precedents, from Gascoigne to another frequent reference this week, in David Platt against Belgium in 1990. Even further afield, there was Marco Tardelli’s goal for Italy against Argentina in 1982, Claudio Caniggia for the latter to beat Brazil in 1990, and Zinedine Zidane suddenly turning up the dial against Spain in 2006. The most common example of all, given the context, was Portugal 2016. With each of those teams, single moments saw a conviction suddenly surge through the squads. It can be a powerful thing.

There was still something more to all of the situations, though; maybe even something more to the teams. Both Argentina 1990 and England 1996 had mostly just been flat, requiring a spark. Italy 1982 and France 2006 were low on confidence, which affected coherence. Big wins changed that. With England 1990, it was just the formation, given the quality was visible. Portugal 2016, meanwhile, simply couldn’t get going.

Over the last few days, the England players have felt a “shift” in training. There’s even been a lightness to some of the heavier work. Many of the squad felt the benefit of proper time with the family on Tuesday. Part of that is down to the breathing space that comes from a bit of a break, but most of it is from the release of Jude Bellingham’s goal against Slovakia.

The line all week has been that this is a “turning point”, even coming up repeatedly in team meetings. Gareth Southgate himself set that idea in the euphoria after the Slovakia game, openly talking about how it could be similar to Paul Gascoigne’s goal against Scotland at Euro ‘96. One of his “leadership group”, John Stones, was only too willing to take up the thread.

“I think it is a turning point emotionally, to do it in such a high-pressure moment in the last few minutes,” the centre-half said. “I believe it is going to change a lot of things for the team, going through these emotions.”

It was an undeniably huge goal, but it is still a lot to put on one strike. Can a single moment really change a whole tournament?

John Stones believes England have already seen a “shift” and “unlocked” two key qualities for the latter stages of Euro 2024, in their ability to score crucial late goals and “seamlessly” switch between formations.

Gareth Southgate and his players feel that Jude Bellingham’s 95th-minute equaliser against Slovakia has had a transformative mood on the camp, and there is a sense that can create a fear factor among opposition sides.

It hasn’t been clear in the week since, however; ongoing concerns about performance as well as Marc Guehi’s suspension have led England to work on a three-man backline.

Stones says that can fit with the resolve which the team have started to develop after beating Slovakia, however.

Switzerland is on the verge of making history at Euro 2024, but a few months ago it was a team under severe pressure.

A dinner and some “super” red wine in Duesseldorf — where Switzerland plays England on Saturday — helped captain Granit Xhaka and coach Murat Yakin turn things around.

The Swiss team eliminated defending champion Italy last week and is a step away from the semifinals, which would be its best-ever result at any tournament.

Just over four months ago, however, things were very different. Switzerland had won just one of its previous seven games, and that was against tiny Andorra. During that time, Xhaka had publicly criticized the team’s training sessions — and by implication Yakin — and likened the team’s performance to a kick-about “in the park.”

In February, Yakin came to visit Xhaka for dinner in Duesseldorf, just up the road from where Xhaka was playing for the then-undefeated Bayer Leverkusen.

What exactly they talked about remains a secret — and so does the menu — but both men have said the dinner was an important moment in the bond between coach and captain. It may have helped that Xhaka scored his first goal for Leverkusen the next day.

“We players are happy that we have a coach who is open to hearing the players’ opinions and there have never been problems. We are men enough to talk about it,” Xhaka said last month.

“Good food, super wine and I scored the next day … I think we are both very ambitious. We both just want success for ourselves, for the team. And that is what counts. Everything else is history.”

Jude Bellingham saved England from an embarrassing defeat with a stunning last-minute overhead kick, before Harry Kane scored at the start of extra time to send the Three Lions through.

It was shaping up to be another nightmare evening in Gelsenkirchen but Southgate was vindicated for his lack of changes as his biggest stars finally arrived to turn defeat into victory.

And ahead of Saturday’s game against Switzerland, below you can find England’s potential route to the final of Euro 2024.

England’s happiness at being on what is perceived to be the easier side of the knockout draw at Euro 2024 has been tested by Slovakia but what awaits them in the quarter-final on Saturday will be an even sterner examination.

Opponents Switzerland have been beaten only once in their 18 matches since the World Cup, a dead rubber European Championship qualifier in Romania, and have lost outright in one of their last 14 games at the Euros dating back to 2008. Germany midfielder Toni Kroos was full of praise for the Swiss after the hosts needed a 92nd-minute equaliser in their final pool match to draw 1-1 while Italy’s Bryan Cristante was candid after their 2-0 last-16 defeat.

“They beat us physically and in terms of organisation,” he said.

For an England side that has found opening up opponents difficult in Germany, that presents another tactical challenge for manager Gareth Southgate. The Swiss have a settled back-four but coach Murat Yakin is not afraid to make changes in the forward positions, and with several options across the front three, it makes it hard to plan for them. Switzerland’s seven goals at Euro 2024 have come from different players, they are not reliant on an individual who can be contained, but spread the workload across the team, whether in attack or defence.

They also work incredibly hard. Midfielder Rubin Vargas praised his side for how they suffocated Italy when out of possession. “We didn’t give them time to breathe,” he said.

The Swiss are second bottom for number of tackles made (36) at the finals, but have conceded only three goals, which shows how they use their organisation and press to subdue opponents. In fact, goalkeeper Yann Sommer has been forced to make only six saves in more than six hours of football, so well has he been protected by his defence. No gloveman has been less busy at Euro 2024.

The Swiss are one of four teams at the tournament to have scored two goals from outside the box, along with Germany, Turkey and Romania. They have had more shots on target (18) than off target (15) at these finals, a claim only a handful of sides can make, and don’t mind not having the ball with 48% possession spread across their games. They do not use width much and are last of the 24 teams for crosses completed with five in four games, keeping their play compact in central positions.

“When we put on our pressing, we won’t let them (England) play. That’s our job,” Yakin told reporters. “We played well against Germany, we played well against Italy, so why shouldn’t we beat England?”