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England manager Gareth Southgate saw his side finish unbeaten in 2023 (Nick Potts\/PA)<\/p>\n
March\u2019s home friendlies against Brazil and Belgium will provide much-needed challenges in the final meet-up before Southgate selects his 23-man squad for Germany.<\/p>\n
Two further preparation games will follow before the Euros get under way, with the December 2 draw in Hamburg providing clarity on next summer\u2019s opposition, base camp and potential route to the final.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s draw against Macedonia rubber-stamped their place among the top seeds for the Euro 2024 draw and Southgate said: \u201cIn the calendar year we\u2019re eight wins and two draws from a particularly tough qualifying group and certainly a friendly in Scotland that was always going to be challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, you\u2019d like 10 wins out of 10 but not many teams do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really pleased with what the players have given \u2013 not just the players that are here tonight, but the players that have represented us through this year because they\u2019ve been excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI think we’ve done a lot of things well, but there’s always room for improvement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Harry Kane has, unsurprisingly, been among the standout performers this year but questions about the Bayern Munich sharpshooter\u2019s back-up remain.<\/p>\n
Callum Wilson, Ivan Toney, Eddie Nketiah and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have all been selected in recent times, but Ollie Watkins is the current frontrunner for the job.<\/p>\n
The Aston Villa striker had the chance to underline that status against Macedonia but was replaced by Kane just 58 minutes into a frustrating night in Skopje, where the skipper made an immediate impact as he forced Jani Atanasov into an own goal equaliser.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, it was a difficult game,\u201d Southgate said when asked about Watkins. \u201cVery little space, back five, so we\u2019re dealing with three centre-backs, really, and we weren\u2019t quite able to create the clear chance for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he did fine. It\u2019s not easy when you\u2019re coming in in those circumstances but that\u2019s international football.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, he\u2019s had games where there\u2019s been more opportunities to score and he\u2019s done that well with us.<\/p>\n
\u201c(This) was a different sort of test and, yeah, as a team, it was hard to find the spaces and find the gaps even though moments Phil (Foden) found lovely little passes and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) did.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so crowded around the edge of that box to find those clear chances for our forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n