Croatia v Italy LIVE: Reaction as last-gasp Zaccagni goal sends Azzurri through to Euro 2024 knockouts

And so Italy became the first team to go where no other nation among the favourites at Euro 2024 have bothered, or dared, or thought worthwhile, so far.

No, not to go all-out-attack and wipe the floor with an opponent - Germany did that on the opening night. Not to drop a big name, either, or to leave out a leading goalscorer.

Instead, Luciano Spalletti ensured the Azzurri were the first of the big guns to attempt to show their tactical proficiency in more than one distinct shape, altering their set-up from a back four and wide forwards in the opening two fixtures to line up 3-5-2 against Croatia in their decisive Group B encounter.

Against Spain in particular, their wide players had failed to have any kind of impact and Federico Chiesa was one of those to pay the price, making way as Spalletti’s alterations saw a roving two-man strikeforce come into play, Gianluca Scamacca also pulled into bench duty, key man from the qualifying campaign Giacomo Raspadori replacing him and Matteo Darmian starting as a third central defender.

It lasted an hour, before panic mode set in.

Gareth Southgate says England are “definitely making progress” in terms of fitness, as he said the build-up to the final Euro 2024 group match against Slovenia required “a reset button” and “open and honest conversations”.

The manager clearly hopes this game will be a watershed in the team’s tournament, after two poor opening performances that brought four points but also a lot of criticism. Southgate himself made a point of stating how a lot of that was down to the physical condition of the players, who he found couldn’t press in the way the team wanted. He stressed this is something that has improved over the last week. Southgate specifically pointed to the varying situations of Marc Guehi, Kieran Trippier and Harry Kane.

“We’re definitely making progress. If you think that when we got Marc Geuhi through the door, he’d had 70 minutes, that was the most he’d played for Crystal Palace in the last three months. Trips [Trippier] hadn’t had a 90 minutes for three months. Then we had Harry and others coming back from injuries as well, so two games in, with a bit of recovery time, all of those will be in a better place. That’s definitely going to help us as we progress through the tournament,” he said.

England take on Slovenia in a bid to cement their status as Group C winners, after an underwhelming start to Euro 2024.

Gareth Southgate and England have been criticised for their performance during the lacklustre 1-1 draw against Denmark, and the tepid performance has put huge pressure on the national side to perform.

England players were forced to go on the defensive, with Harry Kane hitting out at ex-players turned pundits who have been widely criticising the team, and urged both fans and media to judge the side after the tournament.

The Slovenia match offers a chance to right some wrongs and England were boosted on Monday with both Kieran Trippier and Luke Shaw taking part in training. 

The match will kick off at 8pm BST on Tuesday 25 June at the Rhein Energie Stadion in Cologne.

England v Slovenia will be shown on ITV1 with coverage starting at 6.45pm. The match can also be streamed live online via the ITVX platform and app. You can find a full list of which channel is showing each match here.

England are through to the knockout stages of Euro 2024 with a game to spare.

Gareth Southgate’s side picked up four points from their first two games following a win over Serbia and a draw against Denmark, with results in Group B on Monday night confirming that England are guaranteed a place in the knockout stages as one of the four best third-placed teams at the very least.

However, England will be looking to top Group C and can do so with a victory over Slovenia in Cologne on Tuesday night. A draw may also be good enough to top the group, but Denmark can leapfrog them if they defeat Serbia by two goals.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly perceptions can change? At 9pm local time on Sunday, Germany kicked off their final group game as favourites to win Euro 2024. By half-time, many fans must have wondered whether it might all come crashing down for the hosts as soon as the last 16. By 11pm, the feel-good factor was back. Faith was swiftly restored.

After Germany’s mauling of Scotland came a trickier but well-earned win over Hungary, and then this: a 1-1 draw against Switzerland, secured in added time and saving the hosts from a second-place finish in Group A.

For 64 minutes of game time and the 15 forming the interval, a last-16 clash against Italy was on the cards. Although the defending champions are admittedly yet to discover their fate in Group B, the German feel-good factor was fading in Frankfurt. But it was recoverable and, in the end, it was recovered by Niclas Fullkrug.

At least Steve Clarke could point to progress, of sorts. “We scored two goals this time, we only scored one the last time,” said Clarke, as the Scotland manager reflected on another group stage exit from a major tournament. However, it summed up Scotland’s lack of cutting edge at Euro 2024 that the two goals they did score went in off opposition players, in Antonio Rudiger’s own goal and Fabian Schar deflecting Scott McTominay’s shot past his goalkeeper.

If hosts Germany and Euro 2024 will miss the Tartan Army and the atmosphere the travelling fans brought to the tournament, the same cannot be said of Scotland on the pitch. If three games brought one point and an early exit, the same as three years ago at Euro 2020, Scotland can hardly pretend to be hard done by. Their 17 shots at Euro 2024 is the joint-lowest ever recorded in a group stage – only Northern Ireland, in 2016, showed less attacking threat and even they managed what Scotland could not and reached the knockouts.

And so the fear before the tournament that Scotland did not have enough goals in the side proved correct, as an absence of creativity and attacking ambition became brutally apparent. In a must-win game against Hungary, Scotland failed to have a shot until the hour. Holding out for one moment – in this case, appealing for a penalty as Stuart Armstrong went to ground in the box along with Hungary’s Willi Orban – was a gamble Clarke took. And it explained Scotland’s passive start. “It was a one-goal game,” he said. For him, it hinged on a “100 per cent” penalty.

As Harry Kane was talking about the pressures involved in wearing one shirt, he was offered another. Playing for England brings pressure, responsibility and criticism. The escape route was offered by an enterprising reporter from local German television, inviting Kane to play for seventh-tier SG Lauscha/Neuhaus. The offer included free bratwurst, he said, sufficiently confident to bring a shirt with the striker’s name on it while brandishing a contract. “I’ll have to talk to my agent and see what we can do,” smiled Kane.

The harsher words were reserved for the only other Englishman to win the Golden Boot in the World Cup. Gary Lineker had branded England’s performance against Denmark “s**t” on a podcast. “The bottom line is we haven’t won anything as a nation for a long, long time and a lot of these players were part of that and they know how tough it is,” countered Kane.“All I would say is remember what it is like to wear the shirt and that their words are listened to. I am sure they want us to win a major tournament and being as helpful as they can and building the lads up with confidence would be a much better way of going about it. I’m not telling people not to do their job, it’s their job to analyse games and players. There will be games where I get stick or other players will get stick. Maybe when I’m 40 or 50, I’ll be on one of those shows trying to dig players out – I hope I’m not.”

England play their third and final group stage game at Euro 2024 on Tuesday, knowing that they still require a positive result to ensure they top Group C after a stuttering campaign so far.

The Three Lions beat Serbia in nervy fashion first time out, then were somewhat fortunate to draw with Denmark to top the group heading into their last fixture against Slovenia - and received plenty of criticism in the process.

Gareth Southgate seems set to shuffle the pack, at least in midfield, in search of a winning line-up for England to not only secure first place and their round of 16 spot, but also some confidence and a little more cohesion as they move through the tournament.

There are also question marks over the wide forwards in the line-up and possibly at left-back, the closer Luke Shaw gets to full fitness.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the game including all the latest team news.

Turning our attention to tomorrow’s vital England game...

Gareth Southgate is confident England will deliver an improved performance against Slovenia as the Euro 2024 hopefuls look to top their group following days of scrutiny and criticism.

An unconvincing 1-0 victory against Serbia in their Group C opener was compounded by arguably their worst major tournament display under the former defender.

England were fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw against Denmark on Thursday, leading to widespread examination and analysis of a team that has hit back at ex-players in recent days.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have been among the most vocal critics and Southgate, who claims to be “oblivious” about such comments, says it is time the Euro 2020 runners-up do their talking on the field.

“We have had time on the training pitch and plenty of discussions with the players,” the England manager said on the eve of Tuesday’s group finale against Slovenia.

Europe’s best strikers are vying for individual honours as well as team success as they aim to top the scoring charts at Euro 2024.

The quadrennial continental tournament is currently taking place in Germany with many of the world’s top marksmen on show and battling it out for the Golden Boot.

Cristiano Ronaldo became the leading scorer in competition history with five goals at Euro 2020 taking his overall aggregate to 14 and sealing the Golden Boot in the process, as his assist saw him edge the comparatively unheralded Patrik Schick of the Czech Republic, who also netted on five occasions during the tournament.

Footballing greats such as Antonie Griezmann, Fernando Torres, Alan Shearer and Gerd Muller are among those who have won the prestigious prize throughout the history of the Euros and the likes of Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Jamal Musiala and Romelu Lukaku are hoping to join them this time around.

Some players have got off to a fast start but others have still got plenty of work to do in order to challenge at the top of the standings as we advance through the final round of group games and the knockout stage.