London (AFP)

England broke their curse of the first matches at the Euro by overcoming (1-0) a disappointing Croatia on Sunday in Group D, ideally launching a competition that it could play almost entirely at home.

The tenth was the right one for the English, always beaten or held in check for their entry into contention in continental competition until then.

A hard-fought success under the hot pre-summer London sun, but deserved in view of the selflessness and generous efforts developed by the men of Gareth Southgate.

The performance was far from perfect, facing a Croatia vice-world champion but taken by the throat for the first 20 minutes by the "Three Lions" before rebalancing the discussions, without creating much danger, however.

However, we thought the defense of whites weakened by the absence of Harry Maguire.

And Southgate's choice to start on the left Kieran Trippier, usually rather right-back, even if he is comfortable on both sides, seemed very cautious.

He had been preferred to Luke Shaw or Ben Chilwell just crowned with a victory in the Champions League but left in the stands, without being injured.

Tyrone Mings will in any case have shown authority in the axis alongside John Stones, leaving only one shot on target to his opponents in 90 minutes, a distant attempt by Modric captured in two stages and without fear by Jordan Pickford.

In front of them, the pair Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips in the midfield was another source of real satisfaction, controlling the tempo of the meeting.

The Leeds player, one of the Premier League's revelations last year, has made a sparkling debut in international competition.

- More work for Southgate -

Present at the recovery, the restart and even in front of the goal, he did everything.

He had a nice volley at the entrance to the area (9th), carefully pushed back by Dominik Livakovic, before serving Raheem Sterling perfectly on the decisive goal (1-0, 57th).

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An achievement that had come to reward quite logically England, who had thought to open the scoring in the 6th minute, when Phil Foden rolled up a ball from the left which hit the inside of the post before coming out.

This obviously does not mean that the rendered copy was perfect.

The second half of the first act was thus sluggish offensively, for lack of speed and creativity, a recurring problem.

Harry Kane, very marked by the serious discomfort on Saturday of his former teammate in Tottenham, the Danish Christian Eriksen, was very discreet, stuck in a dense Croatian defense and who mistrusted him like the plague.

The end of the match not quite under control, even if the Croats did not know how to take advantage of it, is another negative aspect.

Southgate got it right by bringing in young Jude Bellingham (17) in the middle instead of Harry Kane for the last ten minutes.

But the English coach has enough to continue to work in serenity with these three capital points before receiving the Scottish Tartan Army for an explosive match next Friday, then the Czechs on Tuesday 22.

A first place in this group would allow the English to play all their matches in London, with the exception of a quarter-final in Rome, and to benefit from the support of a hot crowd - they were around 21,500 this Sunday at Wembley- after being weaned from international matches in the Football Temple since November 2019.

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