England head coach Gareth Southgate admits that he "completely" understood fans' negative reaction to his side's display in their 1-0 friendly loss to Iceland on Friday night but promised that the Three Lions would be "better" at Euro 2024.
In their final warm-up fixture before the continental championships, eight years on from being embarrassingly knocked out of Euro 2016 by Our Boys, England put in a dreary display at Wembley and succumbed to a Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson winner.
The Three Lions unsurprisingly dominated possession against Age Hareide's men but could only muster one shot on target throughout the whole 90 minutes, often struggling to play their way through the Icelandic wall.
It took a couple of crucial blocks and Aaron Ramsdale saves to prevent an energetic Iceland from running away with the tie in the second half, while Harry Kane uncharacteristically spurned the hosts' best chance in the first 45, volleying off target from a few yards out.
A few boos were heard when the half-time whistle blew, and the end of the tie was also met by a chorus of jeers from the home crowd, although many fans had already seen enough and headed for the exits during the dying embers.
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Southgate: "We will be better against Serbia"
England now have just over a week to dissect their uninspiring display before facing Serbia in their opening Euro 2024 fixture on June 16, but Southgate has promised fans that they will witness a "better" Three Lions team at the Veltins-Arena.
"I'm confident we will be better than we were tonight against Serbia in our opening game. I completely understand that we didn't play well enough to keep the crowd excited," The Mirror quotes Southgate as saying.
"You would like a good performance and a crowd that's been entertained to leave them on a high before the Euros and clearly we weren't at the level we needed to be. It was a far from ideal night and I'm not going to dress up the disappointment as something else, so we have to stay calm because we will be better against Serbia."
One day after confirming his 26-man squad for the European Championships, Southgate was able to field a starting XI akin to what he intends to put out at the Euros, as Kane, Kyle Walker, Phil Foden and Declan Rice all returned to the lineup.
However, barring a few bright flashes from the likes of Foden, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon, there was nothing exciting about England's attacking endeavours, while Iceland often found it far too easy to let fly from range.
Southgate: 'Iceland defeat will focus our minds'
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While also conceding that England's display was "disjointed and disappointing", Southgate stressed that the loss could be construed as a positive, helping his side to "focus their minds" and not allow any complacency to creep in at the Euros.
"In a way it will focus the mind and it shows that any complacency, or thinking that talent alone is going to get us this trophy, won't be enough," the 53-year-old added.
"We have to be spot-on to win every game at this level. Iceland deserved to win, but it will focus our minds that we have to do better next weekend. It was a disjointed and disappointing performance and we didn't show enough character.
"It's not perfect but I've been involved in a lot of these last matches before a tournament as a player as well. No excuses for the result but there's a lot of things we can put right quickly. There were questions asked that we weren't able to answer."
Southgate also provided a double injury update on centre-backs John Stones and Marc Guehi, the former of whom picked up an ankle injury before the latter took a blow to the head.
Ben Knapton
