NewsEuro 2024: Alexander-Arnold features for England in opening win over Serbia
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold featured for England as they earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Serbia in their Euro 2024 opener on Sunday night.
The Reds’ No.66 was selected to start in midfield by head coach Gareth Southgate for the Group C encounter in Gelsenkirchen.
Alexander-Arnold completed 69 minutes of the fixture - with Liverpool teammate Joe Gomez named on the bench - after helping his nation earn an advantage in the first half.
England dominated early possession in the contest and were rewarded in just the 13th minute of the match for their efforts.
Winger Bukayo Saka drove to the byline having been released down the right flank, delivering into the box for the onrushing Jude Bellingham to head home from inside the six-yard box.
The Three Lions then pressed on for a second with Kyle Walker flashing a ball across goal, before Serbia threatened at the other end through Aleksandar Mitrovic, who fired a low shot wide.
Following the half-time interval, Serbia started on the front foot in their search for a leveller as goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was forced into action on a number of occasions.
Ahead of his withdrawal and in his last meaningful action of the evening, Alexander-Arnold hit a well-struck effort from outside the area as play opened up, with Serbia stopper Predrag Rajkovic able to beat away his shot thanks to strong hands.
Pickford and Rajkovic each had to produce fine saves in the latter stages, with Three Lions captain Harry Kane forcing the most notable of those, seeing his header pushed onto the crossbar.
England, however, stood firm defensively as time ticked down to take the spoils and start the tournament with victory.
“We’re happy of course, we got a win, which was what our objective was,” said Alexander-Arnold post-match.
“It’s very important to start a tournament with a win and that was our main aim. We definitely didn’t want to lose the game, but we knew had the quality of players to win the game and we proved that.
“It was a very difficult game and we had to earn it, but those are the ones which feel even better.
“Tournament football is really hard and of course we feel we could’ve played better, but we won and in tournament football that’s the only thing that matters, to be honest.
“We’ll keep up the momentum. It’s the first game so we won’t get ahead of ourselves. We know we earnt [this result], but at the same time we know we need to improve in the tournament.
“So there’s things to learn and things we can also look at and be happy with.”
Southgate’s side are back in action on Thursday afternoon when they face Denmark in Frankfurt.
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