England seek elusive first win against Croatia in opener

A quarter-century on, England open another continental campaign at their national stadium against the team that prevented Gareth Southgate’s side reaching the World Cup final three years ago

LONDON

There’s an indicator of why England have never won the European Championship. In nine attempts, they have never won an opening match at the tournament. Not even when their first match was at Wembley in 1996.

A quarter-century on, England open another continental campaign at their national stadium against the team that prevented Gareth Southgate’s side from reaching the World Cup final three years ago.

Croatia on Sunday will face a team refreshed since losing 2-1 and denied a shot at adding to its only major title at the 1966 World Cup.

“Historically, some of those opening matches England have flown out of the blocks, we haven’t kept the ball as well and we have suffered later in stages of games,” said Southgate, who was in Euro ‘96 side that was held 1-1 by Switzerland in England’s opener. “How do we pose Croatia as many problems as we can?”

Led by 2018 World Cup Golden Boot winner Harry Kane, only nine members of that squad made the cut for the expanded 26-man group for a cross-continental European Championship that will see England play play six games at Wembley - if it reaches the final.