World News Southgate says England are conquering high expectations Blog

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It seems that the further England’s players progress in the European Championships, the less pressure they will be under.

“We are now at the moment of the tournament,” said England coach Gareth Southgate, “when it is more about what is possible and what is achievable than what could go wrong.”

Southgate has noticed a gradual change in mood in his squad for Euro 2024.

Theoretically, there is more at stake now that England have reached the semi-finals and a match against the Netherlands. After all, the men’s team needs just one more win to reach two consecutive European Championship finals and reach title contention at a major tournament outside England for the first time.

However, Southgate said the pressure and “noise pollution” on players was much greater at the start of the tournament.

England arrived at Euro 2024 with their strongest squad in 20 years but struggled through the group stages, needing an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time to get past Slovakia in the round of 16 and then needing a penalty shoot-out win against Switzerland to progress from the quarter-finals.

“One of our strengths over the last seven, eight years has been that we’ve had less fear and less inhibition,” Southgate said at a press conference before the match in Dortmund. “But I think at the start of the tournament the expectations were pretty high and of course the noise from outside was louder than ever.”

“I felt like we didn’t quite get into the right position. In the end, it was impressive how hard the players persevered and found ways to win. I felt like that changed when we got to the knockout stages, definitely in the quarter-finals – we saw a better version of ourselves with the ball. We are freer.”

However, the adversity England have already faced on the field could work in their favor, Southgate said.

“When you have to head the ball out of the box in the 92nd minute or score a goal in the 96th minute (like against Slovakia), there is nothing stronger than building team spirit,” he said.

Southgate stressed that calling previously suspended referee Felix Zwayer for the match “is not even an option” as the English coach supports UEFA’s request.

The 43-year-old Zwayer was banned for six months by his country’s football association in 2006 for working as an assistant referee alongside Robert Hoyzer.

The German referee was one of the officials who brought Hoyzer’s match-fixing to light. The relatively short duration of Zwayer’s ban was a recognition of this contribution. Hoyzer was banned for life.

Later, England midfielder Jude Bellingham was fined by the German FA after he pointed out Zwayer’s involvement in the scandal following a loss for his old club Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich in 2021.

Southgate said: “I have no concerns about who the referee is. He will be of the very highest standards because that is how UEFA makes its decisions and oversees the matches during the tournament. For me it makes no difference at all.”

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