As England beat Bosnia 3-0 on Monday night in a Euros warm-up, Crystal Palace pair Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton made debuts.
For Eberechi Eze, Monday night was his full England debut as he made his inaugural start in a Three Lions shirt. Eze impressed in the process, but the spotlight was stolen by Adam Wharton who came off the bench and didn’t misplace a single pass.
The duo will have handed Gareth Southgate something to think about as he will be mulling over which players miss out on the final 26 in his England squad.
Eze was so good on the left and played with a freedom and style which many have become accustomed to seeing him present for Crystal Palace which likely has him heading to Germany.
Wharton did the same, putting no feet wrong during his 28-minute cameo in the midfield. Now, he’s been lauded by his teammate and also the England boss.
How Crystal Palace gem Eberechi Eze reacted to Adam Wharton’s England debut
After the 3-0 win for England, Eze was on media duty, speaking with BBC Sport 5 Live about the game and in doing so discussed his Palace teammate Wharton who impressed on his debut, leading to his Palace teammates congratulating him on Instagram.
As quoted by Andrew McSteen, Eze picked out what makes Wharton so good, following his more than impressive debut for the Three Lions.
“Adam Wharton is an incredible player and playing with him at Palace, I have got used to him – he is a joy to play with.
“He is calm, composed and a cool guy. For someone so young he is very mature and very wise.”
Eze wasn’t the only one to be happy with the performance that Wharton put in, with Southgate also singling the 20-year-old out for praise.
READ MORE: Get to know Eberechi Eze, the versatile Crystal Palace and England star
Gareth Southgate also reacts to Wharton’s performance
While Eze was blown away, nobody was more impressed than Southgate as he gave a lengthy review of the midfielder’s England debut, also as quoted by McSteen.
“There’s no question he’s impressed us. Why did we bring him in? We saw things in his performances for his club that showed he…
“The biggest thing for us is that ability to see a picture and play forward early. That sounds really simple, but that hasn’t been so simple for us over seven, eight years; that type of player.
“There’s a lot still ahead of him, there’s a lot of adjustment…
…but I think the other players have recognised his quality very quickly.
“When you see the positions they take, the way they interact on the training pitch. You know when players see something that ‘oh, ok’…
“Whenever we call a new player in they (other players) always doubt what we’re doing. They think we haven’t got a clue what we’re doing (laughs). Then, they work with these youngsters & they go ‘OK, now we see why’. We obviously watch them far more than anybody else.
“So I think he showed in the little cameo today what we’ve seen in training in the last week and what we’ve seen at his club.
“Big steps to come and more steps to go forward but he’s adapting and adjusting to everything really well.”
From Southgate’s words, it seems quite evident that he’s loving what he’s seen from Wharton, and this could bode well for Wharton’s chances of starting in Germany this summer.
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