England were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw with Slovenia in Cologne but did enough to win Group C at Euro 2024.
Bukayo Saka had a goal disallowed for offside against Phil Foden, but in terms of crucial attempts, England did not register a shot until the 30th minute. Harry Kane came close to scoring, but was unable to clear Kieran Trippier's cross.
Gareth Southgate made just one change to a team struggling for fluency in the draw with Denmark, as expected, bringing in Conor Gallagher in midfield to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold, but the Chelsea man failed to make any positive impact.
He was replaced by Kobbie Mainoo in the second half and showed improved performance, but England's pressure could not be converted into chances, let alone goals. He lacked movement and had a lot of loose touches.
Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon tasted tournament action but never scored a goal. Denmark's failure to beat Serbia means England still top Group C, while Slovenia have secured the point they need to develop into one of the best top three sides.
England can consider themselves lucky to have avoided what appears to be the tougher half of the draw, avoiding the likes of Germany, Spain, Portugal and France in the knockout stages. But unless this team shows more than this, it's going to be a problem.
Stones: A lot of improvements have been made.
“I think we all wanted to win,” John Stones said. ITV.
“But the goal was to top the group and we did that so I'm very happy. It won't always be an easy road and it won't be easy when everyone has the goal of beating us.
“Two clean sheets out of three is a big positive for us to get to the next level and I thought there was a lot of improvement compared to the previous two games.
“We tried to move around a little more freely and I think we did that. We found people in pockets and created more opportunities and I believe this is another step in the right direction.”
“I understand the fans' frustration about us not scoring, not having chances. That's football. We left it all out there and it's never an easy game.”
