England begin quest to deliver on great expectations at Euro 2024

England manager Gareth Southgate said his side must be exceptional to end a 58year major tournament title drought as they kick off their Euro 2024 campaign against Serbia on Sunday England must cope with the pressure of being hyped as one of the favourites for the tournament as Southgate aims to finally steer a richlytalented generation to glory Tens of thousands of England supporters have arrived in Gelsenkirchen in western Germany eager to see a show from their team after a shock 10 defeat by Iceland in their final warmup match England are aiming to make amends after losing the final of Euro 2020 to Italy on home soil at Wembley Under Southgate they have also come close at two World Cups and the England boss has acknowledged this could his final opportunity for major tournament success But strong performances from Germany and Spain in winning their opening games have shown the scale of the task awaiting England There are a lot of good teams in this tournament We have to be exceptional to progress through the group and have the opportunity to go further said Southgate at his prematch press conference Our focus is to qualify from the Euro 2024 group When youre trying to achieve exceptional things you have to break it down into chunks Our first priority is to get through the group and work from there Despite a remarkable goalscoring record at club and international level England captain Harry Kane is yet to win a major trophy in his career Winning a trophy for your country would be the pinnacle of every career said Kane who scored 44 times in his debut season at Bayern Munich It hasnt quite happened yet but it makes me more determined and hungry to go out and do that starting with this summer We have the opportunity to go out and do that and Im looking forward to trying to make that happen England are expected to cruise through Group C which also contains Denmark and Slovenia who face each other earlier Sunday in Stuttgart Mitrovic threat There is little for Southgate to fear based on Serbias performance in qualifying Dragan Stojkovics side won just four of their eight qualifiers losing twice to Hungary and being held on both occasions by Bulgaria However they have a striker in form in Aleksandar Mitrovic who is well known to Premier League fans from his eight years in England with Newcastle United and Fulham Mitrovic has scored 40 goals in 43 games since joining Saudi side Al Hilal helping them to an unbeaten domestic treble Hes an outstanding goalscorer said Southgate We have to be ready to deal with some exceptional players across the pitchAlso Read lsquoThoughts in the sky dreaming of EurorsquoSerbia coach Stojkovic is aware of the challenge facing his side but said England had to prove their status as pretournament favourites once the action gets underway The team that tries to be the champion of Europe said Stojkovic on what he expects from England They have to do it on the pitch You can say this or that and make all kind of forecasts but all that has to be shown on the field to prove yourselves The match has been declared as high risk by German police and the first real test of the tournament for the security forces Supporters will only be able to access reducedstrength beer at the Arena AufSchalke Englands opening game at Euro 2016 against Russia saw running battles between hooligans The Euro 2020 final was also marred by ugly scenes as ticketless fans stormed the entrances to Wembley Hooliganism has also been a recurring theme at Serbian international matches and both managers called on the fans to enjoy what Southgate described as a carnival of football Stojkovic added Football is something special for people to enjoy and Im sure both sides will be very happy to be at the stadium Sundays first game sees the Netherlands and Poland meet in Hamburg in Group D On Saturday reigning champions Italy began their campaign by beating Albania 21 in Dortmund despite falling behind to the fastest ever goal at the tournament scored after just 23 seconds Spain beat Croatia 30 in Berlin in the same Group B while Switzerland defeated Hungary 31 in Cologne in Group AWith agency inputs