England Celebrate 1,000th Match

Last updated : 14 November 2019 By Three Lions

There will hopefully be a double cause for celebration at Wembley on Thursday evening as England look to secure qualification for Euro 2020 in their 1,000th senior international fixture.

Famous names from the past will be in attendance to mark the occasion and watch the new generation, with Gareth Southgate set to name a very young side for the game, ease past Montenegro to make sure of a return to Wembley for the group stages of next year’s tournament.

Qualification was always likely to be straightforward but the vibrancy of the attacking play shown has been in marked contrast to the toil of the World Cup 2018 preliminaries.

Aside from some worries over England’s defensive deficiencies, Southgate’s major issues have come off the field, racism in Bulgaria and Raheem Sterling’s exclusion from the Montenegro game following a bust-up with Joe Gomez.

The England manager has negotiates both with his customary aplomb and, at this stage, seems to have kept Sterling onside and a happy member of the camp.

He will be needed for the bigger tests to come as the Three Lions get ready for a tournament that will have a strange feel, spread as it is across a dozen host countries.

Wembley will be the showpiece, however, for the conclusion of the competition and England will expect to at least be there for the semi-finals.