DUESSELDORF, Germany: England will play Switzerland in the quarterfinals of the European Championship on Saturday. England manager Gareth Southgate says his team looks “in a different place mentally” after struggling to an extra-time win over Slovakia.
Jude Bellingham is available after avoiding a ban for an offensive gesture.
Switzerland exceeded expectations by knocking out defending champion Italy.
The winner will play the Netherlands or Turkiye in the semifinals.
England will play their fourth quarterfinal at a major tournament under manager Gareth Southgate and have won two of the previous three. Southgate’s cautious tactics have brought hefty criticism from England fans, some of whom threw plastic cups at him in the group stage.
Bellingham’s last-minute overhead kick to send England’s last-16 game with Slovakia to extra time has been one of the most dramatic moments of Euro 2024.
Defender John Stones said that surviving that brush with elimination gave the team new confidence.
Meanwhile, Switzerland coach Murat Yakin has won a reputation for smart tactics at Euro 2024, especially by outclassing an Italy team packed with more famous names in the round of 16.
England are playing two days after a general election ended 14 years of rule by the Conservative Party. It didn’t make waves in the England camp, which Stones called a “politics-free zone.”
Bellingham is available after he avoided an immediate ban from UEFA, which investigated an allegedly crude gesture he made during the Slovakia game. He was fined 30,000 euros ($32,500) and given a one-game ban that only takes effect if he breaks the rules again during a one-year probationary period.
He has denied he was mocking Slovakia when he seemed to gesture toward his crotch.
Southgate has refused to rule out switching to a back five against Switzerland.
“We’re always considering the best way to approach a game,” he said on Friday when asked about the prospect.
Defender Marc Guéhi is suspended after picking up a second booking against Slovakia. Ezri Konsa, who came off the bench in extra time in that game, is the favorite to replace him in the center of defense alongside Stones.
The latter wore heavy strapping on his right knee in training Wednesday but said Thursday he’s fit to play.
Bellingham, forward Phil Foden and full back Kieran Trippier are among five England players who would miss the semifinals if booked against Switzerland. Captain Granit Xhaka is one of four Swiss players in the same situation.
He is fit after training individually earlier this week, Yakin said on Friday.
Southgate is marking his 100th game in charge and it could be his last. His contract expires after the tournament.
Switzerland haven’t beaten England for 43 years. Harry Kane scored the winning goal when England had a comeback 2-1 win the last time they played in a 2022 friendly.
It’s only the third time the Swiss team are playing in the quarterfinals of a major tournament. They have yet to reach a semifinal. A penalty-shootout loss to Spain in the quarterfinals of Euro 2020 was their best European Championship showing.
“Every team wants to excite, every team wants to score goals. We’ve played opponents who’ve made it very, very difficult for us. ... There’s been a lot of expectation on the team in the early part of the tournament, especially. I feel that the team, even in training now, look in a different place mentally. They look more fluid and I’m expecting us to play well tomorrow,” said Southgate.
Defender Stones said: “The other night, I thought we were going home after 60 minutes of the game. To change the mindset of us all and keep that belief and faith, it’s got a lot of power behind that for ourselves, other teams. Everyone watching at home knows that we’re there to do it right until the last minute, literally. And, I think we should take great confidence from that.”
“No matter how they played, they are in the quarterfinals, so no one is interested how they played in the group stage and in the games before that. They have a lot of quality and any time they can hurt their opponents, so we need to be prepared for that,” Switzerland defender Fabian Schär warns against underestimating England.

LONDON: Carlos Alcaraz found himself pushed to a Grand Slam fifth set again, this time at Wimbledon, this time against good pal Frances Tiafoe. And as he usually does under such circumstances, no matter how much trouble he might have been in, Alcaraz surged to the finish.
Alcaraz avoided a surprising exit and got past Tiafoe 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 on Friday to reach Wimbledon’s fourth round in an entertaining match filled with moments of brilliance and a series of momentum swings across its 3 hours, 50 minutes.
“It’s always a big challenge playing against Frances. As I’ve said many, many times, he’s a really talented player. Really tough to face. And he showed it once again,” Alcaraz said. “It was really, really difficult for me to adapt my game, to find solutions, to try to put him in trouble. But really happy to do it at the end.”
In front of a Center Court crowd that included Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, and under a closed retractable roof that amplified the thuds of rackets-on-balls, grunts and cheers, the third-seeded Alcaraz was outplayed for stretches by No. 29 Tiafoe.
But Alcaraz was better at the business end and improved to 12-1 in his nascent career in fifth sets — including victories in the semifinals and final at the French Open after being down 2-1 in sets en route to the title there last month. Tiafoe fell to 6-13 in five-setters.
Tiafoe was unable to pull out what would have been a surprising victory for someone who arrived at Wimbledon with a sprained ligament in his right knee and a losing record this season.
Sure came close, though.
The 26-year-old American was two points away from getting the chance to serve for the win, getting to love-30 on Alcaraz’s serve at 4-all in the fourth set. But Alcaraz steadied himself and claimed the next four points, capped by an ace at 130 mph (210 kph).
He then dominated the ensuing tiebreaker, grabbing a 5-0 lead.
“I served (at) a lot of difficult moments during the fourth set. ... All I was thinking is: ‘OK, fight one more ball, one more ball.’ Thinking about the next point,” Alcaraz said. “And obviously in the tiebreak, I always tell myself that I have to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it, but I have to feel that I went for it all the time.”
The final set featured more one-way traffic. Tiafoe held in the opening game, but that was pretty much that. At 1-all, Alcaraz got the last break he would need by smacking a cross-court backhand passing shot that Tiafoe let fly by; the ball landed right at the baseline, spraying a bit of chalk.
Others into the fourth round with victories on a rainy day were reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff, French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini, No. 19 Emma Navarro — the American who eliminated Naomi Osaka earlier in the week — and 2017 US Open finalist Madison Keys in the women’s bracket, and No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 12 Tommy Paul in the men’s.
Gauff, who is seeded No. 2, will face Navarro in an all-American matchup for a quarterfinal berth.
Most of the attention Friday was on Alcaraz and Tiafoe, two known for providing a show. Alcaraz delivered on-the-run, back-to-the-net ‘tweeners and pointed to his ear to ask spectators for more noise; Tiafoe interacted with the fans, too, waving to them to get louder.
These two good-naturedly traded some mild trash talk when they found out they’d be facing each other, and they hugged and chatted at the net when it was over.
Tiafoe stopped playing during a match last month at the Queen’s Club event after hurting his knee, and was just 13-14 in 2024 before Wimbledon, with some of those losses coming against players he referred to as “clowns,” without naming names.
After Tiafoe, who wore a black sleeve on his right knee, slipped and went down to the ground a couple of times Friday, Alcaraz walked around the net to the other side of the court to check on him or offer a hand to help him get to his feet.
There were fewer of the sorts of lengthy, extended exchanges they engaged in at Flushing Meadows a little less than two years ago — when Alcaraz defeated Tiafoe in a five-setter in the US Open semifinals — mostly owing to the speedier grass that tends to end points quickly. Still, there was shared excellence aplenty, including a 22-stroke point that Alcaraz won to help lead 4-2 in the first set.
Tiafoe broke right back and soon owned that set. Alcaraz righted himself in the second. Then it was Tiafoe’s turn to play better in the third. And, ultimately, it was Alcaraz who emerged.
Now Alcaraz will continue to pursue a second consecutive title at the All England Club and his fourth Grand Slam trophy overall, including the recent triumph in Paris that made the 21-year-old Spaniard the youngest man to win a major championship on all three surfaces.