Euro 2024: Modric reacts to Croatia anguish, England through before Slovenia match – live news | Euro 2024

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Not heard of Timi Max Elsnik? Ben Fisher has done his homework on the Slovenia player who could be a thorn in England’s side tonight.

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On Gallagher, Ben Duxbury gets in touch via email:

Do you think Southgate is hoping that Gallagher is the modern day equivalent of Hargreaves under Sven. Running around loads and letting the better players get on with the exciting stuff like passing and scoring goals.

As an eternal England optimist, I’d like to think so Ben. They need someone to, in the words of ex Manchester United man Fred, carry the piano for the artists to play.

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Everyone loves a fan zone at a major tournament. And The Guardian’s very own Ed Aarons went straight into the mixer to get a sense of Germany’s 2024 fan zones, a place where supporters without tickets to the games can soak in the atmosphere.

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So it looks like it’ll be Conor Gallagher providing an injection of energy and work ethic into the England midfield tonight. As critical as people may be of Southgate for such a change, England do require a vast improvement in their pressing and the Chelsea man will help there. Kobbie Mainoo might have been the more pulse-raising selection, or perhaps Jude Bellingham dropping into the No 8 role, but Gallagher has done well twice off the bench.

Here’s the Guardian’s snippet on him, from our complete guide to every player at Euro 2024:

Conor Gallagher of England
Conor Gallagher of England

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Thanks Michael. What a dramatic couple of nights we’ve had at this wonderful tournament. I’m sure the excitement will only continue with England in action tonight …

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My stint on the blog is over. I’ll hand over to Dominic Booth now. Cheers!

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Paul MacInnes

Paul MacInnes

UK police have said there were no arrests and no reports of disorder last night, as 10,000 England fans descended on the centre of Cologne before the Slovenia game.

Scenes around the Heumarkt were lively throughout the day and at around 10pm the streets were thronged with young fans drinking, cheering and singing songs about the Scots. But in an atmosphere that would have seemed unlikely a generation ago, crowds were peppered with families, as well as tourists trying to join in (and capture events on camera).

The UK Football Policing Unit said this experience was “indicative of what we have seen across Germany so far, with the vast majority of England fans behaving extremely well.”

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Lamine Yamal, the hype is real. Only played for 20-odd minutes for Spain against Albania last night but made a real difference when he came on.

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All the noises from the England camp suggest that it will be Conor Gallagher that replaces Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield against Slovenia and these fresh quotes from Declan Rice to 5Live this morning only seem to strengthen that theory. Rice played with Gallagher in the youth teams at Chelsea before moving to West Ham. The quote about Rice “feeling safe and secure” with Gallagher is mildly interesting, might be that he doesn’t feel the same with TAA.

I have played with Gallagher at academy level, played against him at Palace and Chelsea. He is a team-mate I would love to have on my team, he works his socks off, you feel so secure and safe in there with him. I think he has surprised so many people this year with his ability on the ball, how he breaks forward with it, how he gets into the box, scores goals. I think he is a really positive player and he has come on so much over the past few years as well, you can really see that within himself how confident he is.

Every time I get to play with Con, it hasn’t been much, I have really enjoyed it because I know him really well as a guy, I know his family really well and he is a lovely boy and it is another great chance to stamp our mark.

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This was the goal that did for Croatia. Quite a strike.

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Not sure there has ever been a more desperate player of the match photo.

However, there was quite a nice moment in the post-match press conference.

Italian journalist Francesco Repice gives Modric an amazing tribute in what is likely his last match for Croatia in his career 👏🇭🇷

pic.twitter.com/iBSyzZySFK

— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) June 24, 2024

Meanwhile, the memes are rolling in.

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Preamble

The morning after the night before. Croatia and Italy fans will be waking up in Leipzig with very different hangovers. Croatia came within a minute or two of leapfrogging their opponents into second place in Group B, but ultimately a 98th-minute Mattia Zaccagni screamer means it is the Azzurri that join Spain in the last 16.

Spain top the group with nine points, five goals scored, none conceded. Albania finish bottom and despite having their moments and a raucous set of fans, are out of Euro 2024. Here’s how things finished in Group B.

Croatia are not yet out, as they still have slim hopes of qualifying as one of the four best third-placed teams of the six groups. But on just two points they need a very particular set of results to be one of those teams.

Portugal to beat Georgia
Turkey to beat Czech Republic
England to beat Slovenia by three or more goals
Denmark to beat Serbia

As per Uefa, the four best third-placed teams across the six groups are determined, in the order given, by the following criteria:

1) Higher number of points
2) Goal difference
3) Goals scored
4) Higher number of wins
5) Lower disciplinary record
6) Position in the overall European Qualifiers rankings

A lot of those results do indeed seem likely, but as anyone that has ever put an accumulator on, these things rarely happen all at once.

That was yesterday, this is today. We have a whopping four games for you today, every one of them a potential cracker.

France v Poland (5pm BST)
Netherlands v Austria (5pm)
Denmark v Serbia (8pm)
England v Slovenia (8pm)

“FOUR games, Jeremy. That’s insane”.

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