Icemen cometh Southgate draws chance of revenge
Southgate wants cover for Kane and Rashford Belgium and Danes also in Nations League group
The Viking Thunder Clap will return to haunt England after Gareth Southgate’s side drew Iceland in the Nations League.
The tiny Scandinavian country, who knocked England out of Euro 2016 and Roy Hodgson out of the manager’s job, are pitted together with England, Belgium and Denmark in an inviting schedule of fixtures for travelling English fans.
Of more concern to Southgate, however, is the immediate fitness prospects of his strikers ahead of Euro 2020. Speaking at the draw here, the England manager expressed optimism that Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford would be available – but said the door had never closed on Jamie Vardy.
Doubts had previously been expressed over whether Kane would feature again this season after hamstring surgery in January, while Rashford is out with a back injury. Southgate, however, said: “We’ve had really good updates right the way through and Harry and Marcus are exactly where we were expecting them to be. All I know is that both players have given themselves the best possible chance of being fit and available, not only for us, but for the end of the season for their clubs.”
However, Southgate said he was keen to see the strikers get game time before being picked for the squad. “I think they have both got serious injuries, I think that negates freshness,” he said.
Vardy, meanwhile, has been in brilliant form this season with 17 league goals. He missed Leicester’s 1-0 defeat at Norwich City on Friday after a recurrence of a calf problem, but Southgate has been keeping a close eye on his prior form, despite him effectively retiring from international football in August 2018.
“I’ve not spoken to players per se across the period, but I’ve always said that the door has never been closed,” Southgate said. “That’s been the consistent message.”
The “door is always open”, too, for Phil Foden, who starred in Manchester City’s Carabao Cup triumph on Sunday.
England – who finished third last year in the inaugural version of the Nations League – face a stern test in Belgium, the world’s top-ranked team, but it is Iceland who gave Southgate the biggest smile.
The fixtures will be played from September to November, with the four-team finals set for June next year. “Now, that’s a game, that,” said Southgate of facing Iceland for the first time since their shock 2-1 win.
“I’ve just seen Gudni Bergsson [president of the Icelandic Football Association] and they’re looking forward to it – it’s a different test.”
Erik Hamren, a former Sweden international who took on the Iceland job in 2018, joked that his team, having already inflicted the most embarrassing result in the modern era on England, will be more determined to beat Denmark.
“I can see you want a better result this time,” he told English reporters. “But I must say I’ve been impressed with the development of England. They’re playing really good football and getting good results. It’s going to be really tough. We’ve beaten England, but we’ve never beaten Denmark, so we will try to do that.”
Of Iceland’s 2016 triumph, he added: “I was not the coach, but saw the game of course and it was a fantastic moment for a small country like Iceland.
“You can imagine what it felt like to beat England. I played England a lot as manager of Sweden, so have good memories of beating them. The best was when Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] scored four goals!”
The draw has thrown up what might be described as a bogey group for England, given they played Belgium twice at the 2018 World Cup, in the group stage and the third-place play-off, and lost both times.
England play Italy in a friendly this month, but Southgate moved to play down coronavirus fears.
“We don’t need to speculate at the moment,” Southgate said. “We have to be adaptable and prepared for every eventuality, but we are trying not to get too worried by all the hype, make sensible decisions on hygiene and go from there.”
England cruised through qualifying for Euro 2020, in which they will play group games at Wembley and would also be at home in the semi-finals and final should they get there.
Wales will face the Republic of Ireland, Finland and Bulgaria in League B, while Northern Ireland are grouped with Austria, Norway and Romania. Scotland, also in League B, will play the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Euro 2020 play-off opponents Israel.