Gareth Southgate’s side had hoped for a convincing win to wrap up top spot in Group C at Euro 2024, but had to settle for a draw. Check out the best facts, stats and Opta data from the game with our England vs Slovenia stats page.
Job done.
Can you call that ‘job done’?
England did what they needed to do in so far as they started the night top of Group C, and they have qualified for the Euro 2024 knockout stages as group winners.
But they were given a huge helping hand by Denmark, who drew with Serbia and so failed to take advantage of England dropping points.
The significance of finishing top shouldn’t be understated, though. Gareth Southgate’s side will now play an as yet undetermined third-placed team, but crucially, they have gone into what – for now at least – looks like the easier the side of the draw. England cannot face France, Portugal, Germany or Spain until the final.
And in fairness to them here, Slovenia offered very, very little. They knew a draw was probably the best they could hope for, and they also knew that a draw was likely to be enough for them to qualify as one of the best third-placed sides. Their wild celebrations at the final whistle showed exactly what getting a point meant to them.
For England, wrapping up the top spot would have rightly been the priority, but an improved performance would have been a bonus. There were some bright moments and plenty of endeavour from the players, but the display was still a long, long way off what these players know they can produce.
This was yet another uneventful England match at Euro 2024. Their three group matches generated just 3.4 expected goals – significantly lower than any other team (Ukraine second, with 4.4 xG), even the eight teams in Groups E and F who have only played twice.
In the early stages of this game, England looked much like the team we’d seen against Denmark. It took them 15 minutes to have their first touch in the Slovenia penalty area, and that was a cross from Saka which he was always stretching for and with which he couldn’t find a teammate.
At 25 minutes, they had completed 178 passes for a possession share of 72%, but they hadn’t added another touch in the box and were still awaiting their first effort on goal.
Most of England’s attacks were coming down their previously problematic left side – 53.5% of their attacking touches in that early period, compared to 29.4% on their right, to be precise.
But rather than this coming from some design on England’s part, it was more the result of Slovenia purposefully funnelling their opponents’ play out to the wing where they had offered so little in their first two games.
They did look better down that wing this time, at least. Phil Foden was bright and very involved; Jude Bellingham moved out to the flank regularly; and Kieran Trippier moved the ball more quickly than he had done in England’s previous matches. There was certainly more imagination; clearly, this was something Southgate had worked on in the week.
But there was still no cutting edge in the final third. England did have the ball in the back of the Slovenia net after a positive move involving Declan Rice and Foden which was finished off by Saka, but Foden was flagged offside. It was their brightest moment of the first half, and the record books will always show play stopped at the infraction.
They ended the half with 69% possession but no particularly noteworthy chances.
Southgate has admitted during this tournament that he is still experimenting with his midfield, and after his admission that the Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment hadn’t worked when he withdrew him early on against Denmark, there was another here when Conor Gallagher – Alexander-Arnold’s replacement – was hooked at half-time.
Kobbie Mainoo was introduced, and England came out with him after the break with an urgency in their passing and movement which had been lacking. There was a real palpable will to move the ball around both enough and quickly enough to break a stubborn Slovenia down.
They were admirably patient on the ball, choosing not to rush into a shot from range and wait for an opening, but chances were still proving extremely hard to come by. Kane was consistently crowded out whenever the ball came his way in central areas, and the one time he slipped the attentions of his marker, Jaka Bijol cynically pulled him back and was booked.
Defenders doubled up on Saka every time he got the ball, too, and he had an ineffective night as a result, unable to run anywhere but down a blind alley. While England had looked more imaginative on the left, there seemed little plan to get the best out of Saka. Having made five successful dribbles in England’s first two games, Saka failed to complete a single one.
Southgate then turned to Cole Palmer for the first time in this tournament as Saka was replaced. Playing on the right side of midfield, he was yet another player – in addition to Trippier and Foden on the left – playing out of position. He also gave off the impression of someone that wasn’t entirely used to this team and the players around him – probably because he wasn’t.
The longer the game went on goalless, the longer England were giving Denmark the chance to overtake them at the top of the group. They pushed for a winner, but it wasn’t to come.
At the final whistle, there was a nervous wait for the Denmark game to finish while Slovenia celebrated their likely progress, but eventually news of that result came through, and England breathed a sigh of relief.
Southgate will cling to the few shoots of positivity from this game as his side search for a winning formula at Euro 2024. Soon, though, this needs to stop being an experiment or England are going to be in for a surprise in the knockout rounds.
For now, they’re through the group stage with a welcoming path through the knockouts.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the England vs Slovenia stats from their Euro 2024 Group C clash in Cologne.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
England vs Slovenia: Post-Match Facts
- This was England’s seventh 0-0 draw at the UEFA European Championship (41st game), second only to Italy in the history of competition (8 in 48 games).
- Slovenia have drawn 83% of their games at the UEFA European Championship (5/6), the highest ratio of any side in the history of the competition.
- Both Slovenia and Denmark have drawn all three of their Group C games at Euro 2024; only once previously had a side drew all three of their group games in a single edition of the UEFA European Championship, with Portugal doing so in 2016.
- England have won their group in both UEFA European Championship campaigns under Gareth Southgate, as many times as they’d topped the group in their previous eight appearances in the competition.
- England’s first shot in this match came via Harry Kane in the 30th minute – it was their longest wait for a shot in a match at the UEFA European Championship since their meeting with Germany in Euro 2000 (35th minute).
- England’s 74% possession was their highest recorded in a major tournament match in which they failed to score (since 1966 for World Cup and 1980 for Euros).
- Slovenia (57th) are the lowest-ranked side England have ever faced in a match at a major tournament (World Cup/Euros) since the FIFA ranking was introduced.
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