Manchester United legend Gary Neville and Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher have dropped their respective predictions for England going into Euro 2024 this summer.
Gareth Southgate will take charge of England for his fourth major tournament as Three Lions boss after his side punched their ticket to the UEFA competition.
England finished ahead of defending European champions Italy, who defeated the Three Lions at Euro 2020, in their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign in Group C.
The Three Lions, who won six and drew two of their Euro 2024 qualifiers, have been placed in Group C alongside Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia for the tournament.
Gareth Southgate, who has been linked with Manchester United in recent weeks, is out of contract with England in December and his future remains uncertain.
The England manager has high expectations placed on his shoulders, with the Three Lions tipped as one of the favourites to win Euro 2024 in Germany this summer.
Southgate has failed in his last three attempts to end England’s long-running trophy drought, with the Three Lions’ last major silverware coming at the 1966 World Cup.
Carragher on Southgate and England at Euro 2024
Gareth Southgate is expected to call up several Manchester United players for his Euro 2024 squad, including Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw (if fit) and Marcus Rashford.
Kobbie Mainoo made his England debut under Southgate during the March international break, but it remains unclear if he’ll be in the Euro 2024 squad.
Speaking on The Overlap, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were asked what would represent success for England at the upcoming European Championship.
Carragher believes the minimum for him would be for England to either win Euro 2024 or reach the final after admitting the pressure is now on Southgate to deliver.
“I think in terms of the manager, I almost feel like there’s a feeling now that if he didn’t win, it would be seen like he’s cost us the tournament,” he said.
“I do feel like there is a real negativity getting built around Gareth Southgate and I think he’s done a really good job with England, but I think there’s this feeling that we should be going there and winning and getting to at least the final, so I think you’d have to get to the final for it to be seen as a success.”
Neville makes Euro 2024 prediction and Carragher disagrees
Neville insisted that the “minimum” for him would be for England to reach either the quarter-finals or the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The United legend pointed to England’s 2022 World Cup exit in the quarter-finals at the hands of France, saying that he “accepted the way in which we played” in Qatar.
However, Carragher immediately hit back at Neville and dismissed the idea from the Sky Sports pundit that a quarter-final position would be a success for England.
“I always think in a tournament it’s two things: how far you go, obviously, but who you get knocked out by,” Neville said.
“I think in the Qatar [World Cup] I accepted the way in which we played – it was disappointing – but I accepted the way in which we played against that France team that I thought you could lose that game.
“I think that’s just the way football is because they’re two really good teams.
“So, for me, it would be who we got beat by. Obviously, we’d have to get to a minimum, I think, of quarters, semis.”
Responding to Neville, Carragher said: “Semis more than quarters, Gary. No chance.”
Neville continued: “No, no, I don’t know if we can play France in the quarters – I’ve not looked at it properly – but let’s say we get knocked by France in the quarter[-finals], you’d be saying I can understand that.
“I agree, semis [are] probably the minimum you can get to and if it’s France and it’s an absolute humdinger of a game and you lose it on penalties, are you gonna sit there and say that’s really a nightmare? I wouldn’t be feeling that way I don’t think.”
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