Harry Kane may be England’s all-time leading goalscorer but his strike in the draw with Denmark was his first in the group stage of a major finals since the 2018 World Cup.

The England skipper, though, will be buoyed by his recent record once the business end of the tournament comes around and Southgate will be hoping history repeats itself.

He scored four in four at Euro 2020 as England were eventually beaten on penalties by Italy, and at the World Cup in 2022 he again drew a blank in the group stage before scoring two in two – although he did miss a penalty in the quarter-final defeat to France.

Southgate opted to select Luke Shaw as the only natural left-back in his 26-man squad, that despite the fact the Manchester United defender has not played since a hamstring injury in February.

Shaw is now back training with the rest of his team-mates and his return could be timely, especially with fitness concerns over Kieran Trippier, who has been filling in on the left side of defence despite being right-footed.

If neither can face Slovakia, Southgate will have to choose between Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa to fill the gap or move Kyle Walker across from right-back. He could even take the radical step of dropping Bukayo Saka out of his attack but the Arsenal man said on Friday he does not see himself as the solution.

While England will be heavy favourites against a nation ranked 45th in the FIFA world rankings, Slovakia have shown what they can do with a win over Belgium in Group E, a result which ultimately saw them progress in third place.

As an independent nation, Slovakia have never made it past the last 16 at a European Championship and Francesco Calzona’s side will be keen to reach the quarter-finals to extend their run in Germany.

Ivan Schranz scored twice in the group game and will be considered one of the dangermen, while Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka will be aiming to keep England at bay at the other end of the pitch.

Kobbie Mainoo stepped up for England when he came on in the second half of the goalless draw with Slovenia last time out and will be pushing to start against Slovakia as a result.

Declan Rice remains a mainstay of the England midfield but selecting the right partner for Arsenal’s £105million club-record signing has seen Southgate trial a number of options across the group stage.

Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was the first to be given a go, only to be substituted off in the first two games as Southgate admitted the “experiment” may not have worked out.

Conor Gallagher, who replaced Alexander-Arnold in those two fixtures, started against Slovenia but was hauled off at half-time for Mainoo, the Manchester United man slotting in seamlessly to give his chances of a first competitive England start a huge boost.

Having led England into a fourth major tournament as manager, Southgate’s future remains uncertain – especially given the criticism he has faced in Germany.

He was jeered following the Slovenia game and had plastic beer cups thrown in his direction from fans frustrated by the performance.

It is a far cry from when Southgate guided England to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final at Wembley three years ago and an exit at the hands of Slovakia would likely see his tenure come to an end.

That’s especially true after a surprising 1-0 win against Belgium, the Group E favourites, in their opening game of the tournament. After the match, Slovakia’s players danced and sang along to a popular folk song Macejko, Macejko with a huge group of travelling supporters in Frankfurt, among which sat former internationals Martin Skrtel and Jan Durica.

Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka praised the fans, calling them “fantastic” and said he heard them in the second half even though he was in front of the Belgian stand. Slovakia have managed to get supporters on their side again – and they will see there’s another struggling giant out there for the taking.

Slovakian journalist Lukas Vrablik gives us the lowdown on today’s opponents:

The Arsenal winger has operated as a left wing-back earlier in his career while Gareth Southgate has used Kieran Trippier out of position on the left of his defence in the extended absence of Luke Shaw.

Saka’s mentor Ian Wright has voiced his opinion that he could fill in to give England a natural left-footer and someone who can provide more attacking incision from defence.

But the 22-year-old told BBC 5 Live: “No, obviously I love Ian Wright and he says so many great things about me but I don’t think putting me out of position is the solution. But at the end of the day, I think we can we can talk about this but it’s in Gareth’s hands so we will just have to trust whoever Gareth selects on the day.”

Bellingham and Kane are England’s two goalscorers so far but they only exchanged one pass in the 0-0 draw against Slovenia and they have studied video footage as they look to dovetail better.

Bellingham turned 21 on Saturday and the England players sang “Happy Birthday” to him at training but Kane has also had more serious conversations about how they can bring the best out of each other.

The BBC punditry crew seem to have been enjoying their downtime in Germany!

For Gareth Southgate, there is always the possibility it will come back to penalties. It is his history; England’s, too. It is also the nature of international football. The last World Cup final was decided on spot kicks, along with two quarter-finals and two last-16 ties. In Euro 2020, they determined a last-16 game, a quarter-final, a semi-final and, as England know to their cost, the final.

And yet this season’s Champions League contained its first shootout since the 2016 final. Maybe it is a consequence of one-off ties in neutral venues, maybe the way the margins can be narrower in the international game when managers lack the same time to develop a style of play and a level of cohesion to win games in regulation time. Or perhaps it is just something innate to the England manager and his team.

It is 28 years now since Andreas Kopke dived to his right to parry Southgate’s rather tame spot kick in Euro ’96. Southgate himself is responsible for bringing more thought, more practice, more science to the discipline a variety of players and managers used to describe simply as “a lottery”. Perhaps it wasn’t when England got their cathartic win against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup. Planning and practice did not make perfect against Italy in the Euro 2020 final, however. Even the tournament when his England did not have a shootout featured a crucial penalty, ballooned by Harry Kane over Hugo Lloris’ bar as France won a 2022 World Cup quarter-final.

And so to England against Slovakia. With Southgate’s side low-scoring and drawing their last two matches, with Slovakia having three tight group games, the chances of a shootout in Gelsenkirchen seem still greater. “We’ll prepare as thoroughly as we always do but we are always refining that process,” said the England manager. “We want as much control of that process as we possibly can. We have prepared over a period of time.”

Read Richard Jolly’s take on the possibility of a penalty shootout: