Bradford City boss Graham Alexander fears England look great

The tournament gets underway in Germany later this week, with Scotland taking on the hosts in Munich on Friday night.

The Germans will fancy their chances of winning their fourth European Championship, and a first on home soil.

But they are set to face stiff competition from the likes of France, Portugal and England, with the latter starting as favourites with the bookies to go one better than last time and end a 58-year wait to lift a second major trophy.

Alexander believes England boss Gareth Southgate is almost spoilt for choice with the players he can pick from and feels the Three Lions have every reason to be confident heading into the tournament.

“England used to look at other nations and the more technical players of Spain, Brazil and so forth,” he said.

“But if you look at England’s squad now it’s on a par with any of those countries, certainly with the attacking quality.

“It’s almost top heavy a little bit and there are a lot of decisions to make in the offensive positions.

“But if you’ve got a squad, you want those headaches of picking one good player over another. That’s a good place to be as a manager.

“He’s got players that are in the world class bracket.

“I think what they’ve built up over the years under Gareth is a consistency. They’ve edged forward in all the tournaments and the only thing they’ve got to tick off is getting over the line and winning one.

“I think they go into it with the mentality that they are on a par with everyone else.

“Gareth must be rubbing his hands together when he looks at the squad. He’s got a good group of players there who can beat anyone.”

Gareth Southgate has every reason to smile when he sees just how good his squad looks on paper. (Image: PA.)

The likes of Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham boast a wealth of big-match experience behind them despite being so young.

“They have got a lot of caps under their belt and they are first choices in world class teams,” added former Scotland international Alexander.

“You’re not taking subs from teams and asking them to play at the top level.

“These are top players in top teams fighting for the biggest trophies and used to playing big games week in, week out.

“They are used to competing for titles so it’s no different for them going to a tournament.

“Harry Kane is probably the one stand-out player that’s been playing regularly for six or seven years.

“But after that I would say England not over-reliant on one particular individual.

“They’ve got numerous choices for certain positions – and even if Harry Kane got injured or didn’t play, they have top-notch strikers to come in there as well.

“There will be a lot of managers in the tournament looking at Gareth Southgate with envious eyes with the quality he has at his disposal.”

England suffered the ultimate agony of penalty shoot-out defeat at Italy’s hands in the Euro 2020 final. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Saka all missed from the spot.

Marcus Rashford, a surprise omission from England's Euro 2024 squad, struck the post with his shootout penalty in the Euro 2020 final. (Image: PA.)

Alexander said: “You might need a touch of luck in one particular game.

“You’re probably going to have to go through a penalty shoot-out at some stage, which they seem to have tried to rectify.

“I think they’ve got as good a chance as anybody of winning it – as much as it pains me to say.”

Alexander, with 40 Scotland caps under his belt, will have his usual laugh with City number two Chris Lucketti during the tournament.

“I know I’ve got an English accent and I was born in Coventry but I’ve never been an England supporter. My mum and dad are Scottish and Irish.

“I have a bit of banter with Chris every summer England are in tournaments.

“There’s no such thing as being able to support Scotland and England. You just can’t do it.”

• Alexander's Scotland memories of the past, his positive impressions of the Tartan Army at present, and his hopes for their future, will be published in the T&A later this week.