England vs Bosnia and Herzegovina

St James’ Park is the venue as England and Bosnia and Herzegovina go head-to-head in their first-ever international showdown.

Without several first-team stars, England kickstart their final preparations for the upcoming Euro 2024 with a must-win friendly against Bosnia before taking on Iceland in their last warm-up fixture. Despite several high-profile absences, including Jude Bellingham, the ‘Three Lions’ head into proceedings as hot favorites to end an underwhelming three-game winless run (D2, L1). That’s their longest wait for victory since a streak of six in September 2022, highlighting the pressure to return to winning ways. Gareth Southgate’s rock-solid backline has shown signs of vulnerability of late, failing to keep a clean sheet in four of their last five internationals, including a 2-2 draw against Belgium in their latest friendly. But they could buck that trend in Newcastle, considering only two of their last seven home games have seen both teams scoring.

In the meantime, visiting Bosnia have lived up to their dismal 74th position in 74th in FIFA’s world rankings with four consecutive defeats in the build-up to this trip, all of which saw them concede 2+ goals. A 2-1 loss at the hands of Ukraine last time out denied them a maiden European Championship appearance and spelled the end of Savo Milosevic’s managerial stint. New head coach Sergej Barbarez couldn’t have hoped for a sterner challenge on his touchline debut as he bids to defy Bosnia’s catastrophic traveling record. Except for a 2-0 triumph against minnows Liechtenstein, the Dragons have gone winless on nine of their last ten road trips (D3, L6), with four of those six defeats coming by multiple-goal margins.