England boss Southgate keen to see youngsters ‘excel’

Gareth Southgate

England manager Gareth Southgate shrugged off injuries in his squad ahead of a testing friendly against Belgium and said he's looking forward to seeing his rookies "excel" ahead of the European championships.

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Despite a 1-0 loss to Brazil on Saturday to a goal from 17-year-old sensation Endrick, Southgate is desperate to see how his third-ranked team match-up against fourth-ranked Belgium on Tuesday. "Similar to [Brazil] we're talking about a high-level game, brilliant experience for the players, a chance to see new players again, build towards the summer," said Southgate after the five-time world champions ended his side's 10-match unbeaten run.

"We deliberately took two really high-level games and of course we've had to put out a very different team to the one we might have envisaged. You know, some of these boys are pushing for starting positions, some are pushing for places in the squad. You need to see them against that sort of level of opposition to see if they're going to be able to excel in the summer."

Meanwhile, Florian Wirtz scored Germany's fastest international goal after seven seconds as the Euro 2024 host earned a 2-0 friendly victory over France on Saturday.

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