Lee Carsley has England excelling at another big summer kickabout

In the wake of an end-of-season senior international break during which England could scarcely have looked more underwhelming, a penny for the current thoughts of those Football Association blazers who decided to appoint Thomas Tuchel as Sir(!) Gareth Southgate’s replacement following Lee Carsley’s six-month interim spell in charge. While it’s probably safe to say a chimp with a tactics board could navigate England’s passage through the qualifiers to next summer’s World Cup finals, Tuchel has been hired at great expense on a short-term contract with the sole target of lifting the trophy next summer. When the inevitable handwringing starts (should he fail to do so), folk will want to know to know exactly why a “forrin” – and a German one at that – with a penchant for being difficult and precisely no international management experience got the job ahead of an oven-ready homegrown replacement who seems seriously clued-in when it comes to excelling at summer kickabouts.

Whether or not the criticism will be justified remains to be seen but what we can probably all agree on is that when it comes to securing England’s progress through under-21 tournaments, Lee Carsley seems to have the Midas touch. Having masterminded England’s victory at the last Euros, he is now on the cusp of helping an almost entirely new set of players retain the title won by their country two years ago in Georgia. Having already seen off tournament favourites Spain in the quarter-finals, England booked their place in the final with a 2-1 semi-final victory over the Netherlands in Bratislava. Harvey Elliott – one of just two 2023 winners in the 2025 squad – scored both goals, either side of an opportunistic Noah Ohio strike from 40-yards that caught out England’s goalkeeper at his near post. Mercifully, it was the only time of the evening James Beadle was not about. “We’ve got so much quality,” trilled Carsley, who is looking to emulate Dave $exton by managing England to back-to-back Euros success. “But, more importantly, we’ve got a squad that believes that they can win. There’s more belief, which is important if we’re going to go that one step more, which is generally the hardest step now – getting over the line.”

One player who found it conspicuously difficult to get over the line on Wednesday was Elliott, the Liverpool midfielder taking the impromptu decision to celebrate his opener with an ill-advised knee-slide towards the touchline that was abruptly and painfully curtailed by a dry surface that had been slowly baking in the evening’s 33°C heat. Despite knacking himself in the process, Elliott was able to play on and is hopeful of being fit for the final. “I don’t know what I’ve done to my knee, but it’s bloody hurting,” he said after the game. “So hopefully it’s nothing too silly. It’s a silly decision from me, to be honest, but it’s just one of them, live in the moment. You do these things, but I forgot the pitch was ridiculously dry and it is the price I have got to pay.” Next up? Germany on Saturday, when hopefully the pitch will be well watered, all the better to facilitate celebratory tomfoolery that is as aquatic as it is acrobatic.

Join Scott Murray for piping hot MBM updates from Juventus 1-2 Manchester City from the Copa Gianni, with kick-off at 8pm BST.

“You guys don’t have variety, it’s pasta, pizza, fish, steak. You know what the problem is with Italian food? It’s good specific food that you do very well, but in America if I go to a burger joint or a steak house, then I go to another place, it’s a completely different taste. [In Italy], I go to this restaurant and get a pesto pasta, I go 10 minutes down the street and order a pesto pasta, it’s the same thing” – Weston McKennie risks a diplomatic incident on Juventus’ official podcast, Talk With Us.

“The USA is the country with the worst food in the world. They would even deep-fry the soles of their shoes. How can McKennie say there’s no variety in Italian food? There are 200 million Yanks and all you eat are hamburgers” – former Italy international Emiliano Viviano hits back in style.

“Re: yesterday’s Daily. Is it fair to describe Preston’s 2025-26 home kit sponsorship deal as a mashup?” – Tony Christopher.

“Another example of a current shirt meeting the two out of three standard for what makes a good sponsor: Ipswich Town. Ed Sheeran’s music is local and bad for you. Good design? Meh” – Tim Mason.

“First time writing to you but I had to take umbrage with your description of the Newcastle Brown Ale logo on the Toon shirt (of which I was once a proud owner) as ‘Tin’, when the original logo comes from a bottle. While it was sold in ‘Tin’, as any Toon fan would tell you, the original and much better version was always sold in a bottle” – Mike Todd (and no others).

Please send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day competition is … Tony Christopher. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here. 

“It would be easy to think I would feel slightly envious of what is available now and it would have been interesting to see how good I could have been if I had the same setup” – Bayern and Denmark superstar Pernille Harder is our guest columnist as she returns to coach 80 girls at FC Midtjylland, the team where she began my career but had to leave in her teens as they had no women’s team.

ITV will use Eni Aluko as a pundit in its coverage of Women’s Euro 2025 next month – but has not secured the services of Ian Wright.

Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez is now Liverpool’s Milos Kerkez after the Reds parted with £40m. “It’s a real honour for me, a privilege to come to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, [the] biggest club in England,” parped the Hungarian.

More hot left-back news: Myles Lewis-Skelly has signed a new long-term Arsenal deal that will make him one of the best-paid teenagers in the world. The Gunners have also offered £9.3m for Brentford’s Christian Nørgaard and are poised to sign Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea this week.

Our Copa Gianni round-up is here, and it’s going very well for the Brazilian sides. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola has channeled his inner lifeguard before Manchester City’s game against Juventus in the searing Orlando heat. “My advice to people is to bring water, hats and towels,” sighed the Spaniard.

Ederson, meanwhile, has distanced himself from a move from Manchester City. “Some friends send me a lot of news but 99% is fake news,” he Trumped.

Birmingham and Ipswich will kick off the Championship campaign on 8 August with a Friday night game, while Wrexham have a tough first assignment at Southampton.

Average broadcast audiences for the Women’s Super League have dropped by 35% year on year, a report by the Women’s Sport Trust has found.

Darren McGregor will not play in his own testimonial match for Hibernian against Bolton next month after being involved in a vehicle collision. “While ‘Daz’ can’t feature in the match, he will still be able to attend with the game commemorating his fantastic career,” a club statement cheered.

And hats off to Tottenham for designing a fairly bland black away kit that they claim has a “razor-sharp silhouette fit, engineered for speed and built for stealth”.

“Al Nassr forever,” grinned Cristiano Ronaldo, once he had remembered to open his eyes after striding barefoot onto some scenic Saudi Arabian sands. If the video to announce CR7’s chunky new pay packet resembled a tourist board promo (or perhaps a Love Island trailer?) more than it conveyed a piece of contract news, then perhaps Ronaldo was simply just relaxed into a slumber by his beachy surroundings. Incidentally, the nearest coast a five-hour drive from Riyadh, where the club is based. So with Ronny lingering on 99 Al Nassr goals and now threatening to plunder plenty more, his new deal until June 2027 puts to an end this particular transfer saga. Will Ronaldo finally retire when he’s 42 and the deal expires, or will he actually go on forever?

Our all-singing, all-dancing guide to every one of the 368 players at Euro 2025 is ready for your perusal, with stats, individual profiles and pictures for every single participant.

Roll up! Roll up! Our Euro 2025 team guides are coming thick and fast. The latest offerings have an Iberian flavour: Portugal and pre-tournament favourites Spain.

“We must look England straight in the eyes”: read our big interview with France’s Grace Geyoro, who spoke to Anna Carreau as she closes in on 100 caps for her country.

Lyon thought they were too big to fail. Now they face (at least) a season in Ligue 2, writes Luke Entwistle.

And in today’s Mill: Liverpool couldn’t get Viktor Gyökeres, could they?

On this day in 2006, Ukraine defeated Switzerland on penalties in a last-16 fixture best remembered as the dullest World Cup tie in history. After 120 goalless minutes of football summarised by Mick McCarthy as “bloody awful”, Ukraine won 3-0 on penalties as the Swiss went out without conceding a goal during their four games.