sport news IAN LADYMAN: After heartbreak vs Croatia and Italy, England must stand tall vs ... trends now
Gareth Southgate is so sure of what his England team can deliver against France tonight that he decided his line-up on Monday.
‘We had already watched all the games of France and we had already reviewed our game against Senegal,’ he revealed yesterday. ‘We’re very clear that we are on the right path.’
For the England manager, it was not always like this and for pretty much the first time yesterday he admitted it.
Gareth Southgate (left) is so confident in his team that he picked his starting XI on Monday
England will play World Champions France in the quarter finals at the World Cup on Saturday
Southgate may have said all the right things as he took England to the semi-finals of the last World Cup in Russia four and a half years ago, but deep down he was less sure his players were really ready. As it turned out, they were not. Croatia came from behind to beat them.
‘If you’d asked me four years ago were we quite ready, I’m not sure,’ said Southgate. ‘Now I feel differently because we’ve got evidence over a long period of results.
‘Historically we have always talked well, but the evidence wasn’t there. Now we’ve got more evidence and we’ve got to go and nail this type of game now.’
The result will show if Southgate and England have learnt from their loss to Croatia in 2018
England must learn from their difficult loss to Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals
England are at the crossroads of this World Cup. Lose tonight at the Al Bayt Stadium, in which they must be starting to feel familiar, and it would be pertinent to ask who of quality they have actually beaten out here in the Gulf.
But a victory over the defending champions would propel England towards what would arguably be a more palatable semi-final with Portugal or Morocco.
So for Southgate and his players, tonight’s game has a moment-of-truth feel about it. Have England really learned the lessons of failures against Croatia and then Italy in last summer’s Euros final? They led in both games yet lost.
‘The biggest thing for me in the game is going to be our mentality,’ said Southgate. ‘Of course we will be tactically prepared. But on these nights you’ve got to have men that stand up and take on the challenge. That’s the bit that we’ve got to prove to people.
Southgate (R) admitted he has confidence in his players but they need to step up mentally
The Three Lions have plenty of individual players with big-match experience in their squad
‘This is knockout football. I have got confidence in the players. I think we are in a good place. But I also think we have got to step up mentally.
‘That is the biggest aspect for me that we are trying to hit this week. We have got individual players with big-match experience and to be honest I have no fear about the young ones because I think they are just going to go and play.
‘In big games, in the end, big players step up and they can be
