Sterling left out of England squad for final Euro qualifiers

09.11.2023 - 17:57 arabnews.com

LONDON: Gareth Southgate said the door was still “100 percent” open for Raheem Sterling after leaving the Chelsea forward out of England’s squad for their final Euro 2024 qualifiers.

Southgate, whose side are already assured of their place in the tournament in Germany next year, named a 25-man group on Thursday for a home match against Malta on November 17 and a trip to North Macedonia three days later.

Sterling, who has 82 caps and 20 goals for England, has not played for the national team since last year’s World Cup in Qatar, where England reached the quarter-finals. “The door is 100 percent open not only for Raheem but for other players,” said Southgate. “There’s no doubt about that. “We don’t need to know about his quality, his personality.

He is a crucial part of why we’ve had the journey we’ve had over the last few years.” The England boss said it was tough to leave in-form players out to accommodate Sterling, 28, who has scored four goals for Chelsea this season. “He wasn’t available in March or June and the team started on a good run,” he said. “We won in Italy for the first time in 60 years, the two performances in June were excellent, so we stuck with that group,” he added. “There is no question Raheem is looking dangerous for his club, he looks invigorated since the start of the season.

FIFA England qualifiers England squad final euro Bayern Munich Raheem Sterling Karim Benzema Harry Kane Gareth Southgate Nuno Santo Nice Qatar France Germany Italy Macedonia Morocco Saudi Arabia Malta

BERLIN: Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel on Thursday hit out at the crowded fixture list, saying it was “not for the good of the game and not for the good of the players.” Bayern play at Cologne in the Bundesliga on Friday, just 24 hours after some of their first XI, including Canada’s Alphonso Davies and South Korea’s Kim Min-jae, returned to Munich following the international break. While confirming injured players Jamal Musiala and Matthijs de Ligt would be missing on Friday, Tuchel said members of his squad were “tired mentally and exhausted physically.” “It’s about television rights and the TV stations can choose their teams. We were talking about it, it’s the second time we play Friday away,” he said. “Alphonso and Min-Jae are returning today from very long journeys and it’s obviously very unfortunate scheduling. “It will be spoken of as an excuse but if you’ve heard Jurgen Klopp, they’re playing on Saturday at 12:30 against Man City, we are playing tomorrow (Friday) away. “It’s borderline, or maybe even over the line already.” Bayern also faced league leaders Bayer Leverkusen on a Friday immediately after an international break in September, drawing 2-2 — one of only two occasions in the league this season where the German champions have dropped points. Bayern and Borussia Dortmund both had five players in the Germany squad for the recent round of friendlies, the most of any clubs. Besides tiredness, Bayern’s Germany contingent return having lost both friendlies, 3-2 to Turkiye in Berlin and 2-0 to Austria in Vienna. Bayern midfielder Leroy Sane was given a straight red card for pushing an opponent to the ground in Tuesday’s loss to Austria and Tuchel said: “I could see it coming. “That’s what I told Leroy.

England can be proud of Euro qualifying campaign, says Kane

England ended their European Championship qualifying campaign with a scrappy 1-1 draw in North Macedonia on Monday but captain Harry Kane said they have much to be proud of after topping their group and finishing six points ahead of Italy.