Dan Kilpatrick and Malik Ouzia on England pre-match press conference
England are out to impress against Slovenia at Euro 2024 today.While sitting top of the group and on four points is hardly cause for disaster, the Three Lions have not yet clicked into gear.
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00:00Hello from outside the Cologne Stadium where Malik and I have just listened to Gareth Southgate and Decam Rice preview tomorrow's third and final group game here against Slovenia.
00:09Gareth Southgate confirming that Luke Shaw is the only player not available tomorrow night. He won't play a part despite training with the rest of the squad today.
00:18Malik, what did you make of Gareth Southgate's mood this evening?
00:21I think he pretty much summed it up with his first answer, didn't he?
00:25He was asked about are we going to see the improvement that England so obviously need and he said it doesn't matter what I say really because we'll find out tomorrow.
00:33He said he's expecting a better performance from his team. I'm sure he expected better performances in the first two games as well.
00:39But it does feel like the general tone from the players in particular actually this week, Harry Kane, Decam Rice we've heard from, it does seem like there's a real determination to not just win tomorrow but to win well,
00:49to put some of those doubts of the last few days to bed. But we've had whatever it is, three or four days of fallout now and you sense from Southgate and from Decam Rice that they just want to get on with it tomorrow now and let the football do the talking.
01:02Yeah, that's right. The manager said at one point, our performance has to speak for itself. It kind of felt like Southgate and Rice drawing a line under the discourse over the last few days and just want to get on with playing Slovenia here,
01:13hopefully changing the narrative, dampening the discourse a little bit and re-establishing England among the favourites for this tournament going into the knockout rounds.