Captain Harry Kane says England’s 1-0 defeat against Iceland at Wembley on Friday “could be a nice wake-up call” before Euro 2024.
England are one of the tournament favourites but were booed off after a poor display in the final warm-up game.
Kane, who scored 36 Bundesliga goals in his debut season at Bayern Munich, said there was a lot to improve on before the Euros start in Germany on Friday.
“Of course there will be some noise about it [losing to Iceland] but I think there is a lot of optimism from the fans and rightly so,” added the 30-year-old. “Ultimately it is down to us to make sure we get it right on the pitch.
“This could be a nice wake-up call for everyone to realise it is not going to be as easy as people think. There is a lot of work to do.”
Kane said England, with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon in the side, were unlucky not to have scored several times in the Iceland encounter.
“I think there are some things we have to improve, for sure,” he added.
“It was one of those games. On another day we had three or four clear-cut chances – myself, Cole, Ant had a good chance – so we could have walked off at 3-1 or 4-1 and we would all be going into the Euros very happy.”
England begin their Euro 2024 campaign against Serbia on Sunday, 16 June, in Gelsenkirchen.
