England vs Iceland LIVE: Result and reaction as Jon Thorsteinsson goal gives visitors memorable win
Gareth Southgate’s men play their final game ahead of this summer’s tournament, which begins with a fixture against Serbia on 16 June
England were beaten 1-0 by Iceland in their final warm-up game ahead of Euro 2024. With Gareth Southgate naming his 26-man squad on Thursday there was a feeling of anticipation ahead of the clash at Wembley to see what the Three Lions’ younger players could produce.
The answer wasn’t much. Cole Palmer, starting on the right side alongside Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon, was a livewire in the early stages but Iceland were the ones to open the scoring. A sharp move from Hakon Arnar Haraldsson in midfield saw the ball slipped through to Jon Thorsteinsson who cut inside and drilled a low shot through the legs of John Stones to beat second-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at the near post.
That goal shocked Wembley and England who looked to respond. Harry Kane fired over the bar, Phil Foden slotted an effort wide and Palmer messed up a one-on-one. There was a lack of ruthlessness and creativity in the final third.
Gareth Southgate’s men head to Germany on the back of a defeat which he’ll hope will spur them on to better things come the start of the tournament.
Relive the action below:
England 0-0 Iceland
10 mins: Gordon gets away down the left, burning the full-back for pace, but his ball into the box is poor.
England 0-0 Iceland
8 mins: Palmer and Foden do well to keep possession on the outside of the box before Kane gets in behind and tries to clip in a cross, but it’s deflected behind for a corner.
England 0-0 Iceland
6 mins: Lovely from Foden as he collects it near halfway and pings a ball out wide to the overlapping Trippier, but England waste the crossing opportunity.
England 0-0 Iceland
5 mins: Walker does well to track back to a ball over the top from Iceland, but his pass back to Ramsdale has a little too much on it. Ramsdale manages to clear though.
England 0-0 Iceland
4 mins: Rice tries to slip it through to Palmer in the box, but it runs out of play.
England are trying things from early on here, unlike earlier in the week against Bosnia.
England 0-0 Iceland
3 mins: Stones is moving okay as England keep possession. Palmer receives the pass from Gordon down the left, but there’s nobody there to meet his cross.
England 0-0 Iceland
1 min: John Stones gets in a tangle near halfway, with his ankle getting caught, and he’s down for a brief, worrying moment.
He’s up and okay for now though.
KICK-OFF! England 0-0 Iceland
KICK-OFF! England take kick-off, with Cole Palmer getting us started.
England vs Iceland LIVE
Around five minutes until kick-off now, and the teams are out of the tunnel. Plenty of noise in what looks like a sold-out Wembley.
A bit of hush as the national anthems get underway.
Form guide
Both sides have had mixed form coming into the game, with England having won two, drawn two and lost one of their last five.
The Three Lions finished a straightforward 3-0 game earlier this week against Bosnia, but two friendlies in March, against Belgium and Brazil, ended in a draw and a loss respectively.
The two games before that were England’s final two European Championship qualifiers; they beat Malta 2-0 in their penultimate game before drawing 1-1 with North Macedonia in their final match.
Iceland have won three and drawn two of their last five games, having beaten Honduras and Guatemala 2-0 and 1-0 in friendlies after losing their last Euro 2024 qualification game 2-0 against Portugal.
The Nordic nations entered the play-offs for Euro 2024 – having finished fourht in their group – and beat Israel 4-1 in the first round, before a narrow 2-1 loss to Ukraine meant that they failed to qualify for this summer’s tournament.
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