England: Marc Guehi looks at home on biggest stage to make Euro 2024 spot his own

For all the talk of the inexperience of this England squad, of Gareth Southgate's sudden ruthless streak in culling half of his Qatar clan, only one of his XI here was starting at a major tournament for the first time.

Up against Serbia's twin pillars of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic, and with Harry Maguire's boots to fill, this was a major examination for Marc Guehi and, by proxy, a huge opportunity to make a place in this England team his own.

By virtue of coming through the former in convincing style, the latter has surely been grasped. Across 90 minutes and two contrasting halves, the Crystal Palace man won every tackle, every duel on the ground, as well as most of those in the air, and completed almost every pass.

"I thought he was excellent," Southgate said. "He showed what I see for his club. He reads the game well, uses the ball well. He was aggressive in the challenges. He's not huge in stature, so this sort of game is a big test and he came through it really strongly."

(The FA via Getty Images)

There has been much talk of the Palace influence on this squad, and much credit given to a flying end to the season under Oliver Glasner. Guehi, though, it is worth remembering, has been largely removed from that. Injured in early February, he did not start a Premier League game under the Austrian until the final day of the season, and even then in defensive midfield. In the warm-up match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was nervy.

Here, though, on the biggest night of his career, the 23-year-old looked at home, more comfortable, in fact, than John Stones, who took a while to play himself into the occasion after so little recent football,

before eventually finishing strongly. A clean sheet bodes well for a pair whose only previous starts together had ended in bleak defeats: 1-0 to Iceland and 4-0 to Hungary.

In the first half, in particular, Guehi was among England's standouts, progressing the ball through tight lines with clever passes into Bellingham and bullying Vlahovic out of the reckoning.

(AFP via Getty Images)

Regularly, we talk of centre-backs who love the down-and-dirty of defending deep, all bodies and blocks in the six-yard box, thriving in the thick of it all. Less often do we mention how some are entirely of opposite yearning, excelling in possession-based teams, where much of the most important defending is to be done on halfway in the risky art of prevention at source.

A centre-half who can nip ahead of a striker to keep the opposition fenced in is more valuable to elite teams than one who does not come into his own until the shoe is on the other foot. It is how the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal demand their centre-backs play and little wonder the latter have been linked with Guehi as competition for Gabriel and William Saliba.

If the first half-hour here is to be the template, then Guehi's aggression in those moments of potential exposure will be key.

Maguire has been outstanding for England, including against opposition far better than this. So, to say on the evidence of one night that concern for his absence is unfounded would be a stretch too far.

But Southgate will have woken this morning feeling more sure than yesterday of his best centre-back pairing and that, with questions still to answer elsewhere, is a decent result, indeed.

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