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Real Reason Why England players booed after Iceland defeat in nightmare Euro 2024 send-off

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Gareth Southgate’s team lost their final warm-up match for Euro 2024, 1-0, to Iceland at Wembley, a horrific sight for England fans.

Real Reason Why England players booed after Iceland defeat in nightmare Euro 2024 send-off

England lost 1-0 against Iceland on Friday night. (Image: GETTY/X)

Disgruntled fans jeered England players off the pitch following their devastating 1-0 loss to Iceland in their last Euro 2024 practice match. Just nine days before they took on Serbia in Germany to begin their campaign, Gareth Southgate’s team had a terrible farewell at Wembley Stadium.

With a lot of confidence, England headed to Germany to take on the 72nd-ranked country in the FIFA world rankings.

Nevertheless, fans in attendance were incensed as Iceland took a surprising 12-minute lead thanks to a goal from Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson, and the hosts were unable to break through Age Hareide’s blue wall.

Before an international tournament, England had not lost a send-off match since 1954, when they fell 7-1 to Hungary.

That year, Hungary lost to Germany in the World Cup final, and the Three Lions were eliminated by Uruguay in the quarterfinals.

However, if Southgate wants to avoid facing a huge setback as he enters the last months of his current England contract, his team needs to perform better than that at Euro 2024.

England has only won one of their past five games since November 2023 as they head into Group C, which also includes Serbia, Denmark, and Slovenia.

Earlier this week in Newcastle, the Three Lions defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-0 thanks to goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer, and Harry Kane.

Prior to that, though, Southgate’s team needed a late equaliser to keep a 2-2 draw with Belgium at Wembley.

Days earlier, they had lost 1-0 to Brazil, also at home, after a late goal by teenaged Endrick.

In England’s last qualifying encounter, North Macedonia similarly took the lead but an own goal by Jani Atanasov saved a lacklustre draw.

A major worry for Southgate going into his fourth major tournament as manager is his defence.

Given Harry Maguire’s significance to England’s present period, his omission from the 26-man squad after he failed to recuperate from a calf injury is a harsh blow.

With an early collapse in the loss to Iceland, the Manchester United player’s long-term international companion John Stones raised more questions.

Ezri Konsa replaced him in the second half, and he did not appear. Marc Guehi is expected to start against Serbia after participating in the full game.

The only other centre backs available to Southgate are Joe Gomez and Lewis Dunk, as Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite was left out of the final roster along with Maguire.

Despite a glaring imbalance against Iceland, Kieran Trippier will probably start for England at left back in Euro 2024. The lone left-footed defender on the team, Luke Shaw, hasn’t played since February and will miss at least the first game.

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