The England boss has reminded his squad — 13 of whom are at a first major tournament — that previous near-misses have no bearing on how they will fare against Holland here tonight. Southgate’s England have come close before — this is their third semi-final in four major tournaments — and in the early stages of Euro 2024 he was “fascinated” to detect a pervasive feeling of fear among the players.
They seemed weighed down by the shirt and driven to distraction by the barrage of outside noise about their staid start to the tournament. Southgate must have wondered if eight years’ work was in danger of crashing down around him.
“I had to correct how they were viewing things,” he said yesterday. Since the knockout wins over Slovakia and Switzerland, the manager has sensed a new belief in the group, with the players now relishing the opportunity to “change our lives”, as Bukayo Saka put it after the quarter-final.
Southgate has nonetheless used the quick turnaround since Saturday’s game to urge them to focus solely on what is possible this week. “We don’t want to be burdened by what’s happened before,” he said. “We’ve got to use this opportunity to change history as a motivation.”
At play for England is a first major final on foreign soil, even if Southgate is clear that “we’re not happy with a semi-final, our aim is to win it”.
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