Serbia star 'not afraid' of England and expects to beat Gareth Southgate's side in Euro 2024 opener

A Serbian player has said that he is not afraid of England ahead of the Euro 2024 opener.

On Sunday night, Serbia will kick off their Euro 2024 campaign against one of the hot favourites, England at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen.

Gareth Southgate has a huge array of talents to pick from with the likes of Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins all having impressive seasons for their clubs.

However, speaking ahead of the match, Serbia midfielder Nemanja Gudelj has claimed that the Eagles are looking to win every match and are not afraid of anyone.

As reported by Serbian news outlet Danas, Gudelj said: “A big game awaits us, for both teams. Of course, everything will be big in the upcoming tournament. And I don't hesitate to say - we will play in every match to win! We are not afraid of anyone, on the contrary.

“We are focused on us, we know that the English also talk about Serbia, as we do about them. Serbia wants to do good things!”

Prior to the tournament, Three Lions boss Southgate hinted that this could be his last chance to win silverware as his future remains uncertain beyond Euro 2024.

The FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham told ESPN: “There have been no approaches [for Southgate]. What I would say is Gareth has been really, really clear that he wants to talk about that after the tournament.

“I don't want to provide any distraction for him and the team. I want to respect the fact that they want to talk about the future after the tournament.”

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He added: “I will say that I have said before, really, one is you know I think the world of Gareth, I think he has done a phenomenal job, I think he has transformed the fortunes of our men's senior team, and that's not just off the pitch, which a lot of people talk about, and you can see the culture but also the performances on the pitch.

“The other point I'd make that this I've seen some things about have we got a plan, or haven't we, I have said before that any organisation really has a succession plan in place for their top employees, and we are no different to that.

“This succession plan normally includes everything from what you do for short-term cover, through to a process you follow to candidates. We have that for top employees.”

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