England Euro 2024 LIVE: Latest news as Gareth Southgate plans major tactical switch v Switzerland

Ezri Konsa will be hoping to get the nod from Gareth Southgate with Marc Guehi suspended for the quarter-final against Switzerland – but his only minutes so far have come at left-back.

“I had belief right the way through that we’d get the goal. I didn’t think it would be as late as it was. I wasn’t ready to go home yet and clearly the players felt the same way.”

There’s never been a last-minute knock-out goal – or later – to actually keep England in a tournament. The closest was Gary Lineker’s penalty against Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup quarter-final, but that was in the 83rd minute. It wasn’t as desperately necessary as this.

At St George’s Park, before England ventured to Germany, Southgate turned back time. “We showed the players a presentation about 1966 and how Geoff Hurst hadn’t played until the quarter-final.” Hurst ended up the hat-trick hero in the final and if that scarcely needs explaining, some of Southgate’s charges may not know that a man who achieved immortality had entered the 1966 World Cup with a lone international goal to his name.

Plans can change en route, fringe figures can assume central roles. The path to glory is not always smooth, even if England contrived to make it look remarkably bumpy as they squeezed past Slovakia.

Gareth Southgate believes Jude Bellingham’s goal against Slovakia can be a spark for England’s tournament, like Paul Gascoigne’s goal against Scotland at Euro 96, as he made a point of stating the legend of that tournament and the 1990 World Cup has made people forget performances were initially poor.

“Well, there’s no question it will give the whole group belief,” he said. “The boys that came on and contributed that had a big impact on what we were doing: the togetherness and the spirit that you need.

Jude Bellingham faces a possible ban at Euro 2024 after Uefa opened an investigation into a gesture he made while celebrating the spectacular overhead kick scored against Slovakia in their last-16 tie on Sunday.

In the aftermath of his goal, Bellingham was seen shouting “Who else?!” as he ran over to England fans after scoring. Video showed the Real Madrid forward then kiss his hand and grab his crotch in a gesture which appeared to be directed towards the side of the pitch.

Amid accusations that he had disrespected the Slovakian bench or their supporters, Bellingham explained his actions on social media, tweeting: “An inside joke gesture towards some close friends who were at the game. Nothing but respect for how that Slovakia team played tonight.”

Jude Bellingham saved England from an embarrassing defeat with a stunning last-minute overhead kick, before Harry Kane scored at the start of extra time to send the Three Lions through.

It was shaping up to be another nightmare evening in Gelsenkirchen but Southgate was vindicated for his lack of changes as his biggest stars finally arrived to turn defeat into victory.

England will still need a huge improvement in the knockout phase of the competition if they are to live up to their pre-tournament billing as one of the favourites, but they have had a stroke of fortune with the draw.

The Trent Alexander-Arnold Experiment is dead. Time for another Trent Alexander-Arnold Experiment. Liverpool’s vice-captain seems a misunderstood, underused talent at international level. His time in midfield spanned 123 minutes against Serbia and Denmark and was of sufficient importance, such a scientific voyage of discovery, that it assumed a status of its own. It was an ‘Experiment’.

That it has been deemed a failure was apparent when Gareth Southgate worked his way through a series of partners for Declan Rice against Slovakia – Kobbie Mainoo for craft, Conor Gallagher for graft, Jude Bellingham for overhead kicks – and no scenario called for Alexander-Arnold.

Not as a midfielder anyway. But there felt a pressing need for Alexander-Arnold in his original incarnation, as the right-back revolutionary, the creator supreme, a player with a capacity to make the extraordinary happen. There appeared to be a shift in thought when Gary Neville, England’s most capped right-back until a couple of weeks ago, said it was “illegal” that Alexander-Arnold wasn’t playing. “He’s the best footballer at right-back we’ve ever seen in this country,” said Neville, a more prosaic talent recognising an extraordinary one.

Euro 2024 is heading to the quarter-finals after an entertaining start to the knockout rounds saw eight more nations exit the tournament.

Spain were the only team to collect the maximum nine points in the group phase and they continued their impressive form with a 4-1 win over Georgia. Switzerland and Germany both progressed to the quarter-finals with 2-0 wins, but it was much harder work for France, England and Portugal who respectively required a late own goal, a very late equaliser/extra-time winner and a penalty shootout to go through.

Here, we assess how every Euro 2024 nation stacks up before the quarter-finals (these rankings are revised after each round of games).

The playmaker admitted he has been frustrated they haven’t clicked but said that isn’t due to manager Gareth Southgate‘s tactics – rather the players must take responsibility. Foden claims they have felt inhibited due to the nature of matches and defensive opposition approaches but believes the squad need to be more proactive.

While the 24-year-old admitted that he wants to play centrally for England, he denied there is any issue in his own connection with Jude Bellingham, and believes that the performance level is growing.