England meet Austria at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, in the first of two international friendlies in five days for Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions squad.
Gareth Southgate’s England will be looking to kick off their Euro preparations on a high with a win ahead of hosting Romania on Sunday 6 June, before hosting Croatia, Scotland and Czech Republic at Wembley in Group D later this month.
Austria meanwhile are in Group C at this summer’s tournament and will go on to face Slovakia on Sunday in their final friendly, before taking on North Macedonia, Netherlands and Ukraine in their group at the Euros.
Team News
Jesse Lingard is set to start for England despite controversially being snubbed from the official squad for this summer’s Euros.
Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Ben Godfrey, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Watkins could also feature despite being dropped from the final squad selection, alongside Mason Greenwood who withdrew from the squad with injury.
Jordan Henderson is also in contention to start despite having failed to play since mid-February, whilst Jadon Sancho is a doubt after missing their final training session with a throat infection.
Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Mason Mount, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling all miss out after featuring in Saturday’s Champions League Final as Chelsea defeated Manchester City.
Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw are unlikely to feature after Manchester United were involved in last Wednesday’s Europa League Final, which they lost 11-10 on penalties after a 1-1 draw against Villarreal.
Austria meanwhile have a near full squad available for selection as four snubbed players could feature in this friendly once Franco Foda finalises his official squad despite being not making the Euros selection.
Valentino Lazaro however hasn’t travelled after failing to secure immunity from quarantine after having visited Dubai ahead of joining Austria’s training camp.
Stat Attack
- England have lost just four of 15 previous friendlies against Austria (W9, D2, L4).
- Austria have won just one of their five away friendlies against England (W1, D1, L3).
- England have won both of their last two meetings against Austria in all competitions by 1-0 results in October 2005 and November 2007 respectively.
- Adrian Grbic has scored once in each of Austria’s last two friendlies, defeating Greece 2-1 in October 2020 then thrashing Luxembourg 3-0 in November 2020.
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin has scored in each of England’s last two friendlies as they thrashed Wales and Republic of Ireland in October and November 2020 respectively.
Prediction
With fierce criticism circulating around Southgate’s squad selection, this will definitely be an interesting game for England because if the likes of Lingard and Watkins all deliver stunning performances then pundits will be seriously questioning Southgate’s selection of players like Henderson and Sterling.
England though should really look to build some momentum here ahead of Sunday’s clash with Romania where the proper preparations begin ahead of their Group D opener against Croatia, yet this game represents a chance to see what the team looks like without key players like Chilwell and Mount available.
Austria meanwhile will be looking to bounce back from a shaky period of World Cup Qualifiers in March where their defence was their biggest weakness with seven conceded goals in three matches, especially because they cannot afford to go into the Euros with a wasteful defence.
Foda’s Burschen however do have an excellent attack which has seen them net in 10 of their last 11 matches, so I think we should see goals at both ends given that England are temporarily without their best defenders but the Three Lions should have enough to win this with their attacking quality.
Prediction: England 2-1 Austria
Result: England 1-0 Austria
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