Gary Neville likens England to a Premier League team who won the Champions League ‘against all the odds’ as he claims Gareth Southgate’s under-par side CAN win Euro 2024

Gary Neville believes England can reach Euro 2024 despite their unimpressive performances so far.

The Three Lions were seconds away from elimination against Slovakia in the round of 16 until Jude Bellingham equalised with a stunning overhead kick from his team’s first shot on target.

Harry Kane then scored England’s only other shot on target to secure a 2-1 victory after extra time and set up a quarter-final meeting with Switzerland.

That victory followed a disappointing 0-0 draw against Slovenia in England’s final group match.

Gareth Southgate’s team had earlier won 1-0 over Serbia, but then drew 1-1 with Denmark.

Goals from Jude Bellingham (left) and Harry Kane (right) helped England beat Slovakia 2-1

England would have lost if it hadn’t been for Bellingham’s moment of magic in the 95th minute

In his newsletter for The overlapNeville, who played 85 caps for the Three Lions between 1995 and 2007, said: ‘England played the worst football of the Gareth Southgate era on Sunday night.’

However, Neville believes the manner in which the victory was achieved will have done wonders for the confidence and cohesion of the England camp.

He added: ‘Emotionally it changes everything.

‘England were one minute and twenty-six seconds away from perhaps their worst defeat in history, certainly comparable to Iceland in 2016 and the USA at the 1950 World Cup. What happened in the next two minutes of the game defied any analysis based on the 118 minutes of football played by either side.

‘Faith is like an injection of adrenaline into the veins of football players. When we talk about destiny, something special that happens, the name on the cup, and when players and opponents start to believe it, something transformative happens.

‘Let’s be clear, England will perform as they did against Slovakia when they played Switzerland on Saturday and they will be beaten well and truly. Switzerland are a far better team than anyone they have played, with Serie A, Premier League and Bundesliga winners at the heart of their line-up. Crucially, they have something that England clearly lack, namely a clear system that everyone believes in.

‘But faith comes in different ways. Sometimes it comes, as with Spain, through playing beautiful, passing, possession football with sharp wingers. Sometimes it is honed by sheer stubbornness, a refusal to die.’

Neville then compared the current England team to the Chelsea team that against all odds became European champions in 2012, the same year they finished sixth in the Premier League.

Neville has compared England to the Chelsea team that won the Champions League in 2012

Frank Lampard pictured holding the European Cup after Chelsea famously won it 12 years ago

“The last time I felt like that was when Chelsea got to the Champions League final in 2012 and won,” Neville continued. “It was against all odds. On the one hand, they didn’t deserve it because they weren’t the best team in a lot of games.

‘But sometimes football brings a strange combination of fates, whether it’s a bit of luck, or moments that come together, or the force of personality of special individuals, that makes something come your way as if it was meant to be. Words can’t explain it. Sometimes a team just won’t give up and accept their fate and refuse to surrender to the shame that awaits them.

After claiming that losing to Slovakia would be even more embarrassing than England’s infamous defeat to Iceland in 2016 – when Neville was still a member of his country’s coaching staff – the former right-back said his heart and mind were not in agreement over how far Southgate’s men would go this summer.

He explained: ‘My head tells me that performances matter, that ultimately you run out of chances in a tournament if you don’t create chances. England are not in tune, we don’t see coached patterns of play, they are passive on the pitch and passive off the pitch, in the lack of substitutions and interventions that Gareth Southgate makes.

‘But something happened. Results matter. Whatever you say about Southgate’s substitutions – and no one could hear it – Bellingham and Harry Kane were on the pitch to deliver. Is this the near miss that makes them change their minds?

“At the end of two weeks, they still have one of the best teams here and a game to get to the semi-finals. They’re still within touching distance of history. Of destiny. My heart rules my head. This could still happen.”

England need three more wins this summer if they want to leave Germany with a major trophy

Roberto Di Matteo led Chelsea to an unexpected Champions League title in Munich in 2012

Chelsea finished top of a group containing the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia and Genk at the start of their stellar 2011-12 European season.

The Blues then bounced back from a 3-1 first-leg defeat to Napoli to win the round of 16 5-4 over two legs.

This was followed by a 3-1 win over Benfica over the two legs, before Chelsea beat Lionel Messi’s Barcelona 3-2 in the semi-final, despite playing with just ten men for an hour in the return leg.

In the final, Chelsea needed an 88th-minute equaliser against Bayern Munich to force extra time, with Arjen Robben seeing a penalty saved by Petr Cech in that minute.

Chelsea eventually won on penalties.

If England are to go all-out in Germany this summer, penalties could again be crucial.