The Daily Bee: Southgate Sits Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham Features for England

Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend, and the opening matches of EURO 2020.

I’d like to start with a brief note on Christian Eriksen. First and foremost, I’m very happy that he’s okay, thanks to the medical professionals in Copenhagen who were able to respond quickly. I didn’t want to say anything about it on Saturday because a) I had nothing noteworthy to add beyond what would have been general condolences and b) it’s not like Christian or anybody close to him would see it anyway, so it would feel like a shallow attempt to capitalize on a tragedy. One article that I really did like, however, was this one from Cartilage Free Captain, SB Nation’s Tottenham site, about the importance of learning CPR.

Some of the commenters also point out the importance of owning an AED, or at least knowing where one is located in your building. Knowing how to do CPR and use an AED could potentially same someone’s life and there are plenty of cheap and accessible courses out there. You’d much rather learn and never use it than need it and never learn it.

Anyway, I’m glad Eriksen is okay, and I hope he can make a full recovery.

Jadon Sancho Sits, Jude Bellingham Soars

One of the things I was looking forward to the most this summer was the prospect of Jadon Sancho playing up top alongside Harry Kane. Kane is England’s best player and was arguably the best player in the Premier League last season, while Sancho was one of the best players in the Bundesliga and was in spectacular form in the final weeks of the season. Therefore, I was very surprised on Sunday when the English squad was announced, and Jadon Sancho was not only not in the starting XI, but not even on the bench. Instead, Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden played on either side of Kane.

In the end, England beat a decent Croatia side with Sterling scoring so I can’t exactly say that Southgate got it wrong, but it was still disappointing purely in terms of my excitement in seeing Sancho on the pitch in a major international tournament.

While Sancho didn’t make the squad, another BVB youngster did manage to have an impact on the game. The 17-year-old Jude Bellingham came off the bench in the 82nd minute, and while he didn’t have a ton of time to have a massive impact on the game, he did have one crunching slide tackle on Luka Modric.

The Daily Buzz

What was your favorite moment from the first three matchdays of EURO 2020?