Gareth Southgate announces England Squad

The Three Lions squad to face Australia and Italy has been announced.

Following this weekend’s round of Premier League matches, the international break returns, which sees players fly across the world to represent their respective nations over the next fortnight. On Thursday afternoon, Gareth Southgate revealed his 26-man England squad to face Australia in a friendly and Italy in the Three Lions’ latest UEFA EURO 2024 qualifier.

The game against Graham Arnold’s Australia is set to take place under the arch at the iconic Wembley Stadium on Friday, 13th October. Southgate’s side then play Italy in the capital a few days later on Tuesday, 17th October 2023.

England played Italy very recently in the EURO 2024 Qualifiers, beating them 2 – 1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona back on Thursday, 23rd March. Declan Rice (13’) and a Harry Kane penalty (44’) secured the win for the away side that day. Mateo Retegui (56’) scored Italy’s only goal of the game.

England and Italy have played against each other on 31 occasions, including when they first met in a friendly on 13th May 1933, which was a 1 – 1 draw. Italy has a superior record of 13 wins compared to England’s 9. There have been 9 draws between them as of the time of writing.

Moving on to Australia, the most recent match to be played between these two nations took place on 27th May 2016, also in a friendly, where the Three Lions were 2 – 1 winners at the Stadium of Light. Marcus Rashford (3’) and Wayne Rooney (55’) were on the scoresheet for Roy Hodgson’s England that day.

At the time, Australia were managed by current Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou. His side’s only goal came from an Eric Dier own goal late on in the second half (75’).

Overall, England and Australia have met on 7 occasions, including their first encounter on 31st May 1980, where England won 2 – 1. Glenn Hoddle (9’) and Paul Mariner (25’) scored for Ron Greenwood’s Three Lions, while it was Gary Cole who scored from the spot (85’) for an Australia side led by Manager Rudi Gutendorf.

Now we move onto the 26-man England squad that Head Coach Gareth Southgate has selected for these two matches.

Jarrod Bowen and Ollie Watkins have earned recalls to the squad, as has Manchester City central defender John Stones, who returns following an injury that saw him miss out on England’s matches against Ukraine and Scotland in the previous international break back in September.

Below is the England squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton) & Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal)

Defenders: Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion), Marc Guéhi (Crystal Palace), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United) & Kyle Walker (Manchester City).

Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Al-Ettifaq), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City) & Declan Rice (Arsenal).

Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), James Maddison (Tottenham Hotspur), Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) & Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).

Anticipation amongst England fans is high ahead of these games, especially the Italy EURO Qualifier in late October.

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