Kyle Walker and the case for England's defence at Euro 2024

Gareth Southgate’s team got their tournament off to a winning start in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday night when Jude Bellingham’s first-half header proved enough to see off a dogged Serbia 1-0.

Despite having to absorb some late pressure from their opponents, England held firm to keep a welcome clean sheet, giving them confidence ahead of Thursday’s clash against Denmark in Frankfurt.

Much of the talk in the build-up to the start of England’s tournament was about whether their defence was good enough to hold up and take them deep into the competition. But Sheffield-born Walker was bullish when asked if he had seen such suggestions and whether the players set out to prove doubters wrong.

“The media like to build up a storm and put thoughts in your head that probably shouldn’t be there,” he said. “All of these players are fantastic players, I have played against them numerous times in the Premier League and I know what they can do.

“Never mind who’s here, who’s not here, whoever was going to represent England are very good players. So we use the players that we’ve got and we work to our strengths when other people can cover up other people’s weaknesses, it is as simple as that.

“If you keep clean sheets in tournaments, you have a very good chance of going on and winning it. Listen, we’ve got off to a good start. I thought we defended well against obviously a physical side, but still there’s room for improvement.

“Obviously, it’s a lot of anxiousness around the camp with the first game. You want to get off to a good start, obviously wanting to do the country proud.

“But hopefully now we’ve got that game out the way and we can go on hopefully to achieve something really good.”

With the likes of Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane leading the charge up front, Walker is convinced the England team are good enough to reach the latter stages – although, like every tournament winner, he accepts they will probably need their share of luck to go all the way and lift the trophy.

“You can have good players on the pitch and on paper, we’ve probably got one of the best and that’s not me being arrogant or anything, it’s just the truth,” he added.

"You look around at this quality all around the pitch, even coming off the bench – but you do need a little bit of luck in tournament football.”