England head north to train
ENGLAND will prepare for their shot at European Championship glory in Middlesbrough.
With Wembley handed over to UEFA at the start of June ahead of the tournament, Gareth Southgate’s men are heading on the road in the build-up to Euro 2020.
England will play their group matches in the capital and be based at St George’s Park for the tournament, but the preparation camp and warm-up friendlies will be held in Middlesbrough.
Southgate, left, skippered Boro to Carling Cup glory in 2004 - the club’s first-ever major trophy and the UEFA Cup final two years later, before spending a three-year stint as manager there up until 2009.
The England boss will return to his old stomping ground this summer, with the Riverside Stadium hosting the Euro warm-up fixtures against Austria on June 2 and Romania on June 6.
The Teesside double-header could also see the Three Lions host fans for the first time since the 7-0 Euros qualification win against Montenegro at Wembley in November 2019.
“Should it be deemed safe for fans to attend these forthcoming fixtures then any ticketing arrangements will be communicated via The FA and not Middlesbrough FC,” the Football Association said.
“The FA will continue to liaise with relevant authorities and explore the possibility of supporters being in attendance.”
England have played in Manchester, Sunderland,
Leeds, Leicester and Southampton since 2016.
The Riverside Stadium, opened in 1995, has once hosted the men’s senior team, when Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side beat Slovakia 2-1 in a Euro 2004 qualifier in June 2003.
BEAT Rotherham on Saturday and it’s fine. Beat Rotherham on Saturday and it’s fine. Beat Rotherham on Saturday and it’s fine.
That’s the mantra Huddersfield Town fans must cling to like a life preserver after what is, we believe, the worst defeat the Terriers have suffered since the infamous 10-1 loss to Manchester City in November 1987.
Nobody expected Carlos Corberan to take his side to Carrow Road and claim a win, and even hopes of a point seemed remote given how far ahead of a poor set of Championship teams Daniel Farke’s Norwich are. Get in, stink out the place with dour safety-first football, lose 2-0, and everyone shrugs their shoulders and says: ‘Oh well. We were never going to win that
To lose 7-0 seven-nil - is not a shruggable offence. Norwich produced the most
anyway.’ sensational display of attacking football we have seen at this level for many years, it is worth pointing out.
Let’s take a moment to give that the credit it deserves ... before acknowledging that the Terriers made it so, so easy for them, too.
Standing off their men. Failing to close down second balls. Putting themselves in situations where defenders could be done for pace. Conceding a soft penalty. Acting indecisively when decisive action was required. The complete absence of a midfield. The entire first half was a litany of errors from Corberan’s side.
This was nothing like the team that had looked infinitely more savvy and streetwise and scrappy and determined in their five games without defeat going into this game.
After giving a game to good opposition against Brentford on Saturday, Town regressed to their callow worst, not helped by their best player of recent weeks, Lewis O’Brien, being moved out of his best position to be deployed in a left wing-back role that he has played in before and invariably struggled.
It is clear that Corberan’s approach was all wrong, but the tactical examination and associated criticism will come later.
The bottom line is that whatever the gameplan was supposed to be, the players executed it dreadfully. There are neither silver linings nor scapegoats here; just 90 minutes of misery.
Town’s season will not be defined by games like this and the 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth in December, but those two games punctuate the season and show just how far the Terriers still have to go; how thin this squad runs when half a dozen injuries bite at the wrong time and in the wrong situation.
To go through this once in a season and learn from it is one thing, but to repeat it - only worse - four months later is worrying.
We thought the pendulum of Town’s form had finally stopped swinging from one extreme to the other quite so wildly, and while it may prove to be utterly inconsequential in the end, it is a horrible feeling for all concerned.
We can only hope this experience does not have any lasting effects.
Beat Rotherham on Saturday and it’s fine... at least, as far as the relegation race is concerned.
But Town need the psychic wounds from this chastening experience to heal immediately.