England, eternal candidate to break a title drought that has lasted since 1966, debuts in Euro 2024 against a dangerous Serbia. A meeting in which to measure the true state of form of one of the great favorites to stick to the … continental crown. However, it is not football that monopolizes the focus for this match.
Declared high risk, the objective of the German police is to prevent the confrontation between both countries from going beyond the grass. The presence of 40,000 English and 6,000 Serbians is expected in Gelsenkirchen, although it is the 500 ultras between both fans that generate the greatest fear.
The Balkan ultras already caused incidents on Wednesday, when one of them tried to jump onto the grass during his team’s training session and several flares were lit in the stands.
All the security measures implemented want to avoid at all costs an episode like the one experienced in Marseille at Euro 2016, in which extremist fans from England and Russia staged a pitched battle in the Old Port of the French city. Although they are not Russian ultras, the record of the Serbs does not invite relaxation.
For this reason, the areas in which the fans of both teams will be grouped during the day of the match have been located as far away as possible, one in the north and the other in the south of Gelsenkirchen. Additionally, beer cannot be purchased at the Veltins Arena, except for beer with an alcohol percentage of 2.8% or less, and only two beers can be purchased at a time.
All this so that the only protagonists are the 22 players who take to the pitch starting at 9 p.m. Among those that the ‘Three Lions’ entrust themselves to the leadership of Bellingham, despite their 20 years, to return to playing metal 58 years later. In addition to Kane’s goals and the great form of Foden and Palmer.
For its part, Serbia faces its first Euro Cup under that name and has good chances to become one of the revelation teams. With Vlahovic as a star player and the experience of Milinkovic-Savic, Tadic and Mitrovic, the Balkans want to surprise one of the big favorites.
#Argentina
