England centre-back Marc Guehi has paid tribute to Harry Maguire’s part in helping him step up and fill the Manchester United defender’s boots at his first major tournament.
Maguire had been a mainstay of England’s defence at each of the three previous tournaments under Southgate, but was dropped from the provisional squad for Euro 2024 after failing to recover in time from the calf injury that curtailed his club season.
That left Southgate with a major headache on the eve of the tournament as he set about trying to reshape a backline that had also been without first-choice left-back Luke Shaw for the start of the campaign.
Guehi, though, has been outstanding alongside John Stones during the group stage as part of a defence that, for all England’s attacking struggles, has conceded just once in three matches.
“I haven’t spoken to Harry but me being here, Harry’s played a big part in that,” the Crystal Palace star said. “His consistent performances throughout other tournaments, his help with me on training pitches before has been amazing. I can’t speak highly enough of him and John.
“Playing with John is a dream, to be honest. He’s a top professional, he makes my life so much easier. I’m just following in his footsteps.
“There is not a favourable side of the draw - every team, every opponent, is really tough.”
“Just seeing them two at the highest level, playing consistently well, never letting their country down, has paved the way for me and for so many others to come in the future.”
England take on Slovakia in the last-16 in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, having avoided a meeting with the Netherlands thanks to Georgia’s surprise victory over Portugal on Wednesday night.
Southgate’s men appear once again to have been fortuitous with the draw, knowing that as well as avoiding the Dutch until the last-four, they cannot play any of Portugal, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium until the final.
Guehi, however, insists the Three Lions will be taking nothing for granted having seen several leading nations suffer surprise defeats already in the tournament.
“I think everyone has seen in this competition that there is not a favourable side of the draw,” he said. “Every team, every opponent, is really tough to come up against. I think we need to remain calm.
“We have put pressure on ourselves but we are calm and focused and we need to continue to focus on one thing at a time. We haven’t done any team analysis on [Slovakia] yet, but we all watch the games and know they are a very good side.
“They’ve got some really good players in the team, [Stanislav] Lobotka being one from Napoli. A lot of good players. It will be a another tough match, tough opponent to deal with.”
