ENGLAND have landed in Rome ahead of their mammoth Euro 2020 quarter-final against Ukraine.
The Three Lions had flown from Birmingham Airport after a final training session at national base St George’s Park.
Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Declan Rice and Mason Mount – as well as boss Southgate – looked in relaxed mood as they boarded the plan on Friday afternoon.
They were then seen checking into a hotel in Rome ahead of the huge match.
England booked their place in the last-eight with a convincing 2-0 victory over Germany on Tuesday evening.
Gareth Southgate has been left scratching his head with a plethora of selection dilemmas to mull over.
But on Friday he had a fully-fit and available 26-man group to work with in training.
The likes of captain Kane and centre-back Harry Maguire were spotted grinning throughout the session, with Southgate also beaming.
After their afternoon’s work was done, the Three Lions players hopped on the team bus and made their way to the airport.
After landing in the Eternal City this evening, England will want a good night’s sleep before having one final training session on Saturday morning at the Stadio Olimpico.
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Southgate and Co take on Andriy Shevchenko’s Ukraine with kick-off at 8pm.
The England boss still has a number of things to consider going into the massive game.
The first conundrum surrounds the formation, with Southgate opting for a flexible 3-4-3 / 5-2-3 to combat Germany’s wing-backs in the last 16.
But the boss will likely revert to a back-four for Ukraine in either a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
With FOUR players currently on a yellow card, Southgate may consider resting a handful of stars to avoid any suspensions before the semi-final stage, when previous bookings are wiped out.
Maguire, Rice, Kalvin Phillips and Phil Foden all currently have one yellow card to their name apiece.
Jordan Henderson and Mason Mount are likely to come in for Rice and Phillips – who has started every game.
And Jack Grealish could start in a No10 role behind Kane, with on-fire Raheem Sterling on the left-wing.
Bukayo Saka and Foden are set to fight it out for the starting right-wing berth, with Jadon Sancho also in contention.
Southgate has just 24 hours to make up his mind ahead of England’s biggest games in three years, when they lost in the 2018 World Cup semi-final to Croatia.
Should the Three Lions win, they will face one of Czech Republic or Denmark in the semi-finals.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
