England 3 Bosnia 0: Cole Palmer scores in first start as Trent Alexander-Arnold bids to claim starting spot

BOOKED your London tickets for the England Open Bus Parade on July 15th?

Maybe it will keep fire for a few weeks.

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At St James’ Park in Newcastle, Gareth Southgate’s side put in an uninspiring performance – apart from a couple of late goals – in the first of two friendlies.

Cole Palmer, starting his first game for England, scored from the penalty spot, although the only moment of real quality came through Trent Alexander-Arnold’s excellent volley to make it 2-0. Substitute Harry Kane scored his 63rd goal late on.

While Euro 2024 fever has yet to sweep the country, there are just 12 days until England’s first game against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen.

So let’s hope that Friday’s second warm-up against Iceland It’s better at 90 minutes than this.

Obviously, it is ridiculously early to rule out England’s chances of winning in Berlin on July 14th.

However, this only illustrated that the team’s strength in depth is not as brilliant as some would have you believe. Some members of Southgate’s B team failed to take advantage of their opportunities.

There was a brilliant first performance for Eberechi Eze, although he did no real damage.

Ollie Watkins, scorer of 27 goals for Aston Villa this season, rarely got a whiff before being substituted.

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Marc Guehi and Lewis Dunk were in central defense but were not really tested. And there was also another test in midfield for Trent Alexander-Arnold and hopefully he will have another defeat next to Declan Rice on Friday.

When Southgate made his five substitutions after the goal, Jarrad Branthwaite and Adam Wharton made their debuts, which meant Alexander-Arnold moved to right-back – but he still advanced to produce a superb finish for his third England goal.

Jarrod Bowen did well, while Jack Grealish, having played just 10 minutes for Manchester City in the last five games, was a 30-minute burnout. He did well and set up Alexander-Arnold with a clever pass. He needs to do the same against Iceland to ensure it goes to Germany.

Kane’s appearance off the bench was his first game since Bayern Munich’s semi-final defeat to Real Madrid, when he was already dealing with a back problem, so at least he looks fine.

To be fair to Southgate, he faced all sorts of selection problems.

He had to give a few days of extra rest to those who played in FA Cup final, while European champion Jude Bellingham will only return to training on Saturday. And then there are the fitness issues of Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire.

It should be noted that performance in these friendlies is not an accurate indicator of a team’s performance.

Ahead of the previous summer tournament, Euro 2020 three years ago, which saw England reach the final, they struggled to unconvincing 1-0 victories over Romania and Austria, with both games played here in the north-east in Middlesbrough.

Two years earlier, before the World Cup in RussiaEngland didn’t look like a team that would eventually reach the semi-finals by beating Nigeria 2-1 at Wembley and beating Costa Rica 2-0 at Leeds.

Before Euro 2016, England beat Portugal in the warm-up at Wembley. One team was eliminated by Iceland and the other returned from France with the winners trophy

Despite Bosnia being ranked 74th in the world, England struggled to cause much trouble.

Watkins, looking to continue his excellent season, forced an early block from goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj. Palmer created this chance for Watkins and then from one of his corners Villa attacker headed straight to the goalkeeper.

Bosnia’s only chance came after a sloppy pass from Guehi, but Haris Hajradinovic’s shot deflected off Alexander-Arnold for a corner.

England were better in the second half, but they couldn’t have gotten any worse.

After Bowen’s shot was deflected for a corner VAR noticed that Konsa was having his shirt pulled by Benjamin Tahirovic and after consulting the screen, Norwegian referee Rohut Saggi awarded a penalty.

Palmer’s shot wasn’t good, but it was still enough to beat Vasilj. Alexander-Arnold then fired for the corner before Kane pounced after Bowen’s shot found Konsa.

An hour after the final whistle, Southgate and his team will rush to Newcastle airport for a flight to Southend.

From there, they will head to accommodation at Tottenham’s training ground, which will be their base ahead of Friday’s second friendly against Iceland.

It is after this game that Southgate will deliver the News to seven players who will not go to Germany.

Having had Saturday off to spend time with their families, the 26-player squad will gather at St George’s Park on Sunday before flying to Germany on Monday. They will be stationed at a remote base near Blankenhain.

Hopefully Southgate and his team will be away for just under five weeks. But there is a lot of work to do.

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