Euro 2020 LIVE: England vs Germany latest plus Wales v Denmark last 16 build-up

Jamie Carragher believes that Raheem Sterling is “the most underrated England player of this Era” and thinks that his performances during the group stage show that he is Southgate’s side’s best player so far.

He wrote in his Telegraph column: “There appears to be an undercurrent of cynicism about how good Sterling actually is, the under-par performances pounced upon as evidence he is not quite at the level of the world’s best, and the high-class performances ignored because they inconveniently undermine the argument he is one of the two best English footballers of this generation.

“When it comes to being the most underrated England player of this era, Sterling is out on his own.

“Sterling’s contribution (at Euro 2020 ) so far has not vindicated Southgate for picking him. They have exposed the folly of anyone who questioned his selection in the first place.

“There were plenty of decent performers in a white shirt on Tuesday night, but – on the basis of the first three games – the quest to be England’s player of the tournament is a one-horse race.”

Hundreds had ventured to Baku and Rome to watch Wales in the Euro 2020 group stage, but Robert Page’s side will be without fans when they face Belgium in Amsterdam tomorrow.

Despite also not being on the Dutch safe travel list, a loophole allows Belgian supporters to attend the match as long as they spend no more than 12 hours in the Netherlands, but those from Wales cannot do so.

Despite the actual performances lacking the attacking spark which has been regularly seen in England sides, the group stages were ultimately positive with nine points out of a possible nine being picked up without conceding.

Much was still left to be desired, though, and these problems will need to be rectified if the three lions want to have any chance of progressing past Germany. The aim of the group stages was to be steady and qualify – maybe now the shackles can come off somewhat?

Here, Mark Critchley takes a look at what could have gone better for Southgate’s side:

Away from Euro 2020, the transfer market is still open and there are a number of rumours circulating.

Jack Grealish to Manchester City and Ben Brereton to Leeds? Here are all the latest rumours:

In case you missed the news yesterday, Uefa have scrapped the away goals rule for all men’s, women’s and youth club competitions from next season (2021/22) onwards.

The governing body’s president, Alexander Ceferin, said: “The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams – especially in first legs – from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage. There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored.

“It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was. Taking into consideration the consistency across Europe in terms of styles of play, and many different factors which have led to a decline in home advantage, the Uefa Executive Committee has taken the correct decision in adopting the view that it is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight than one scored at home.”

If there’s one thing that Germany have been during the group stage, it’s unpredictable. They narrowly avoided an embarrassing defeat to Hungary and we’ve seen three different shades of Joachim Löw’s side in the tournament so far.

“So far, I’d say our form has been up and down and that’s been the case lately. But I’m convinced we can improve and play better, in the next match and even beyond,” said Joshua Kimmich after the final match.

So, which team will England face, and what difference could it make?

Belgium will meet Portugal in the Euro 2020 round of 16, and defender Toby Alderweireld believes that their opposition will be a very difficult team to play against.

He said: “I think they are a very difficult team to beat. They have a lot of quality, the team is very compact, they know how to play big games in big tournaments.

“A lot of experience as well, so I think we have to be top to beat them. Of course everyone talks about Cristiano Ronaldo, we know he is one of the best in the world. But not only him, I think they have a lot of quality around him as well who create chances for him. So again we have to be top to beat them.”

Marcus Rashford has said that he will decide after the end of the season whether he needs to have an operation on his shoulder which could potentially see him miss the start of Manchester United’s season. He admitted that he has been playing through the pain during Euro 2020.

The 23-year-old has been conscious that he hasn’t been performing at his best, which has led to him starting on the bench for Southgate’s side during the competition.

Read more here:

Raheem Sterling’s career has been filled with silverware, but he says that winning Euro 2020 would trump any achievements he has made with his club.

“I think winning something with the national team, England, would definitely be the greatest achievement that I can possibly do,” Sterling said.

“I mean, not me but the team can possibly achieve.

“I feel like you win stuff with your clubs and you know it’s a great achievement, but this is on a bigger scale.

“You’re representing a nation, a country, so to achieve something with England it would be the biggest thing to happen in my footballing career.”

On Wednesday evening, as most of Europe were frantically switching between France vs Portugal and Germany vs Hungary, the England squad were doing the same.

“We were all watching together,” Marcus Rashford says. “We were watching the Portugal game and then some lads were watching the Germany game as well.

“It was all a little bit crazy, people just shouting over who scored and that. It’s nice. It’s a moment for the team to sit down and relax because, when the games are on, you are training hard every day and you very rarely get time to come away from it and just be normal people.”

Miguel Delaney spoke to Rashford about facing Germany: