Gareth Southgate stated that the English are ready to end their semi-final bad luck as they prepare to face Denmark in the last four of Euro 2020, bidding to reach their first final at a major tournament since 1966. England topped their group and beat old foes Germany in the round of 16 before ratcheting up expectations with Saturday’s thumping 4-0 quarter-final win against Ukraine in Rome. England have fallen at the penultimate hurdle at major tournaments on four occasions since winning the World Cup in 1966, including their defeat by Croatia at the World Cup in Russia three years ago.
South gate further quoted that “We’ve knocked off so many hoodoos or perceived barriers already and I feel like this group of players will feel this is just the next challenge, I guess the interesting part for us is we won’t feel totally satisfied if it’s just a semi-final for us, whereas maybe three years ago, although there was massive disappointment after the semi-final, there was a feeling we’d come a long way. Now we’ve replicated what we did there, but that won’t be enough to fulfil the group. That’s a positive sign.”
There is a huge difference from the expectation in 2018 and Southgate also admitted that their benchmark in Russia was to end England’s 12-year wait for a knockout victory. The former international defender now has more knockout wins than any previous England manager and will go looking for another in Wednesday’s semi-final bolstered by a boisterous partisan crowd of 60,000-plus at Wembley. Southgate further quoted that “It’s great to be coming back now, to go and have that different environment, preparation, focus was definitely helpful. But now to be coming back to Wembley is a great thing for us.”
