England vs Slovenia

Cologne’s RheinEnergieStadion is the venue as England and Slovenia trade tackles in a high-stakes Euro 2024 Group C showdown.

Pre-tournament favorites England have massively underperformed in the opening two matches. Jude Bellingham’s header fired them to a 1-0 win against Serbia on day one before Morten Hjulmand’s long-range rocket condemned them to a 1-1 draw against Denmark. Despite breaking the deadlock inside the opening 20 minutes in both Group C fixtures, Gareth Southgate’s men have stuttered in the front third, mustering just seven shots on target. Indeed, the Three Lions have generated under 1.00 xG at Euro 2024 thus far, intensifying pressure on Southgate, who has overseen multi-goal outings just twice in their last seven internationals. Another low-scoring affair is on the cards, considering England’s two most recent encounters against Slovenia in 2016 and 2017 have only produced one goal (W1, D1).

In the meantime, Slovenia’s first appearance at the Euro finals since a disheartening group-stage exit in 2000 was off to a decent start, with Matjaz Kek’s side hauling back a halftime deficit to hold Denmark to a 1-1 draw. However, they come into proceedings after taking a heavy punch against Serbia, conceding a last-gasp equalizer in another 1-1 draw, meaning they’d likely have to beat England for the first time after six failed attempts (D1, L5) to qualify for the knockout stages. The Slovenians can be optimistic ahead of this pivotal clash after stringing together an eight-game unbeaten run (W4, D4). On top of that, they’ve gone unbeaten in two internationals against two nations ranked inside FIFA’s top 11 this calendar year, beating Portugal and the United States ‘to nil.’