Lewis Dunk in 33 man provisional England squad for Euro 2024
Lewis Dunk has been named in the provisional 33 man England squad for Euro 2024 in Germany this summer.
Gareth Southgate will axe seven players before the tournament kicks off, leaving 26 to try and go one better than the Three Lions managed when beaten by Italy in the 2020 final.
Dunk has been forced to wait patiently for an opportunity to prove himself at international level. There were five years between Dunk making his England debut against the United States in November 2018 and his second cap in a 3-1 victory over Scotland last September.
The Albion captain has remained a regular ever since impressing at Hampden Park. He now has five caps to his name and will be hoping to add more across the five games England are guaranteed to play this summer.
They take on Bosnia & Herzegovina on Monday 3rd June at St James’ Park in a pre-tournament friendly, followed by Iceland at Wembley on Friday 7th June.
England face Serbia in their opening game of Euro 2024 on Sunday 16th June at the Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen. Next is Denmark on Thursday 20th June at Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt and then the final group game against Slovenia at RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne on Tuesday 25th June.
If Lewis Dunk goes and does play a part, he will become only the second ever Brighton player to represent England at a major international tournament.
Steve Foster turned out for the Three Lions at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Ben White was part of Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2020 but did not see a minute of action.
White has since exiled himself from the squad having presumably found something more fun to do. Like practicing his thespian skills after that ridiculous piece of playacting when trying to claim Pervis Estupina had attacked him like The Undertaker when Arsenal won 3-0 at the Amex in April.
Dunk’s participation had looked in doubt after a couple of high profile mistakes in March’s friendly internationals with Brazil and Belgium.
Ironically, 2023-24 has probably been his most inconsistent season for Brighton in the Premier League. And yet here he is, in the squad having been largely ignored over four previous sparkling campaigns.
Other Albion players already confirmed as participants at Euro 2024 are Pascal Gross and Deniz Undav for the hosts.
Germany looked impressive in their own March internationals and with home advantage, will fancy their chances of going all the way to the final in Berlin.
Bart Verbruggen has been named in the Netherlands squad. Having been hailed as his county’s number one by manager Ronald Koeman earlier in the season, Verbruggen seems likely to start for the Dutch.
Billy Gilmour is expected to be part of a Scotland side who are aiming to escape the group stage at a tournament for the first time ever.
Jakub Moder meanwhile will hope to receive a Poland call up. It would complete quite the comeback for the Magic Man after spending 19 months out between April 2022 and Novemer 2023 with an ACL injury.
