Manchester United skipper Harry Maguire has backed England to emerge as winners of the 2024 European Championship.
Maguire and England have suffered several near misses over the last couple of international tournaments having reached the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup, while they also fell at the final hurdle in Euro 2020.
The Lions made a winning start to their Euro 2024 qualification journey courtesy of a 2-1 victory against defending champions Italy on Thursday.
Goals from Declan Rice and Harry Kane put Gareth Southgate’s men in cruise control before Mateo Retegui’s second-half strike set up a frantic ending at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
That was the third meeting between England and Italy since the Three Lions fell to a penalty-shootout defeat against Gli Azzurri in the Euro 2020 final and Maguire is confident that his nation can go one step better in Germany next year.
“I believe we have the players to win it,” Maguire was quoted saying by The Athletic.
“I’m with a mindset of, ‘if we don’t win the tournament, it’s been a failure. – I’ve been at three major tournaments now and I’ve come so close.
“Obviously, we’ve got to qualify first from a tough group – we’ve come to Italy and got an amazing result.
“We’re in a good place, but these big tournaments are decided on the finest margins. I think we played really well in the World Cup and, ultimately, we got knocked out by a good French team.
“So it’s something that we’re working on. We have so much talent and so many young players coming through.”
Despite being reduced to a bit-part player at Old Trafford, Maguire remains a regular feature of England’s starting XI.
The 30-year-old is expected to feature once again as England welcome Ukraine to Wembley Stadium later today aiming to make it two wins from two in Group C.
