Alexander-Arnold starts for England in Euro opener v Serbia

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany - England coach Gareth Southgate picked Trent Alexander-Arnold to partner Declan Rice in midfield for the Three Lions' Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday with Marc Guehi making his first major tournament appearance alongside John Stones in defence.

Alexander-Arnold - whose usually plays at full back - will probably push forward leaving Rice to be the main shield of England's defence which has been hit by injuries in the build-up to the campaign in Germany. Right-footed Kieran Trippier starts at left back in the absence of Luke Shaw.

Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka will flank captain Harry Kane in attack with Jude Bellingham just behind the front three at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen.

Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic selected Predrag Rajkovic in goal in place of his usual starter Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Nemanja Gudelj replaced midfielder and captain Dusan Tadic who is on the bench.

Stojkovic was able to field his favoured attack led by Aleksandar Mitrovic, whose power in the air will test England's new-look defence, backed up by striker Dusan Vlahovic. Mitrovic wears the armband for Serbia with Tadic out.

Teams:

Serbia: Predrag Rajkovic; Strahinja Pavlovic, Nemanja Gudelj, Milos Veljkovic, Nikola Milenkovic; Andrija Zivkovic, Sergej Milenkovic-Savic, Sasa Lukic, Filip Kostic; Dusan Vlahovic, Aleksandar Mitrovic (c).

England: Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, Marc Guehi, John Stones, Kieran Trippier; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham; Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane (c) REUTERS