England got their EURO 2024 campaign off to a winning start on Sunday night, though it was far from convincing against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen.
Gareth Southgate's side looked to be cruising early on, as Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham headed them in front after just 13 minutes against the Serbs.
However, the performance became significantly more ropey as the game went on, with Serbia growing in influence and England at times looking shaky under the pressure from a team they were fancied to beat.
England entered this tournament as one of the favourites to go the whole way and, even though most of their rivals for the prize were similarly underwhelming in the opening round, their opener did nothing to instil a huge amount of confidence in their chances.
The BBC have been criticised for their England love-in in recent days but, in a rare break from tradition, they held a decently objective inquest into England's tournament hopes after the conclusion of Portugal v Czechia on Tuesday night.
Cesc Fabregas has been a breath of fresh air on the Beeb during this tournament - and he expressed his concerns that the performance against Serbia points to major concerns ahead of the knockout phase for Gareth Southgate's side.
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Cesc Fabregas thinks England performance v Serbia raises major concerns
Though it would be easy to write off England's performance in their EURO 2024 opener as being down to nerves, it is the kind of performance that fans have become very familiar with during the reign of Gareth Southgate.
Having taken an early lead, the heavily favoured side slowly retreated into their shell, inviting pressure from the opposition and ultimately finding themselves holding on for a nervy win.
England did hold on - but Cesc Fabregas was not brushing the performance under the rug, saying that they would only be stretched further against top class opposition.
The worrying thing about England is that the moment teams press a little bit higher, I found that there was a lot of problems. They weren't playing against a particularly fantastic side.
When you play against a big side, they will put you under much pressure, how are you going to deal with this?
They were playing with a second gear on, they were not advancing, they were playing with the same confidence. That's maybe why I missed, as the game was advancing, a little bit of quality coming from the bench, instead of the other way around. I think that would have helped, especially mentally.
The most successful sides in the tournament so far have been the ones with a high press when they were losing the ball, straight away. I think it's modern football.
This is nothing new, and it is what cost England victory in the EURO 2020 final against Italy in London.
Fabregas' point on Southgate needing to be braver with his calls off the bench is one which echoes Roy Keane's pre-tournament concerns - and harks back to another knockout defeat at the last major tournament. The inability of the England coach to make crucial changes against France in the 2022 World Cup quarter-final was widely pinpointed as a pivotal moment in the losing of the game for England.
There is no doubting the immense quality of England's players but, as long as they continue to put in performances like these, questions will be asked of their ability to go all the way.
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