sport news Inside story of how England came within a penalty shootout of winning Euro 2020

Heading into the tournament opener against Croatia, the biggest question facing Gareth Southgate was whether he would start Raheem Sterling.

The Manchester City star wasn’t playing regularly for his club, stats were down on the previous two campaigns and the emergence of Phil Foden and Jack Grealish meant there was a clamour for him to be benched.

The uncertainty over Sterling’s place seems ridiculous now — he was unquestionably England’s player of the tournament.

The notion of Sterling starting Euro 2020 on the bench was just as nonsensical to Southgate and his assistant Steve Holland. 

There was no doubt in their minds. He was England’s form man heading into the tournament and, in the absence of Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson, one of England’s ‘captains’. He was certain to play.

It became clear in the days leading up to Croatia that Tyrone Mings would partner John Stones in a back four alongside full backs Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier.

Conor Coady had been the favourite to deputise for Maguire, who was earmarked to return for the final group game, but Mings consistently lined up next to Stones in shape training in the days leading up to the game. 

Southgate is said to have been impressed with the way the Aston Villa man had performed in the pre-tournament friendlies against Austria and Romania.

Another issue heading into the game was the weather. Southgate knew Wembley would be sweltering and told his players to adapt their games accordingly, while staff prepared ice towels and cool mist sprays for the team to use at half-time.

But just when Southgate thought he had completed all his preparations, Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest on the eve of the game provided another obstacle.

All but one player — Harry Kane — was on the team bus down to London when those distressing scenes unfolded.

Kane, who is close to Eriksen following their time together at Tottenham, had headed to their London hotel with Southgate earlier in the day to complete their pre-match media duties. 

On the coach, players huddled round an iPad for updates. There was particular focus on comforting Trippier and Walker, who are both former team-mates of Eriksen at Spurs.

There was some doubt that England’s game would even go ahead at this point. But it did and England were up and running, Sterling scoring his first tournament goal to secure a 1-0 win.

The victory sparked jubilant scenes in front of 20,000 fans. Not that members of England’s coaching team, in particular Holland, were overly enamoured by the post-match celebrations — the players were immediately lectured as they arrived back in the dressing room.

A victory over Croatia was only the start. By now the coaching team had already turned their attentions to Scotland. 

In the lead-up to the game, Southgate warned his players about an aerial bombardment from Steve Clarke’s team.

By now England’s players were attending as many as three team briefings a day. Southgate was keen not to overload his players with too much information, instead choosing to drip feed them tactical instructions.

He had hatched a plan to rotate his full backs. Reece James’s athleticism at right back was viewed as the perfect remedy for Andy Robertson down Scotland’s left, while the England boss had already earmarked Luke Shaw for his first start of the tournament.

While allowing Walker and Trippier a break, the view ahead of the game was that Shaw and James’s quality from wide areas would enable England to penetrate down the flanks, particularly if they took the lead. It didn’t work out that way, of course. England left the pitch to a chorus of boos after a drab, goalless draw.

Grealish was introduced as a 63rd-minute substitute to rapturous applause from fans, many of whom believed he should have been in the starting XI.

Many of his team-mates felt the same. Grealish had been hugely impressive at St George’s Park and there was a degree of bewilderment over Southgate’s apparent reluctance to use the Aston Villa captain.

There was a similar clamour for Jadon Sancho to be given a more prominent role.

But the view inside the camp was that the Borussia Dortmund star appeared pre-occupied and more distant than normal.

Maybe his pending move to Manchester United was weighing on his mind, or perhaps the fact he was a shock omission from the matchday squad for the first game was a factor.

Sancho, alongside the injured Maguire and Ben Chilwell, was upset not to have been named on the bench for the opening match. 

Having to cut three players from his squad every matchday was a recurring problem for Southgate, who knew it threatened squad harmony.

Many players who didn’t make squads were fuming, even though

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