Gareth Southgate enthused about his pride in the “resilience” shown by his youthful England squad as they made history by reaching the final of Euro 2020.
England were taken to extra time by Denmark in the semi-final, but Harry Kane scored the rebound of a penalty he had originally missed to send his country through. It is the first time they have reached a major tournament final since winning the World Cup in 1966.
The anticipation is already huge for Sunday’s showpiece against Italy. Southgate will need to manage those emotions but also capitalise on them if England are to finish the job and claim the top prize.
For now, though, he and his players could revel in the celebration of doing something that multiple generations of England fans had never seen.
Im so proud of the players, he told ITV. Its an incredible occasion to be a part of.
We knew it wouldnt be straight-forward. We said to the players well have to show our resilience and come back from some setbacks, and weve done that tonight.
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While the overriding emotion was positive, there was also sympathy for Denmark, who have battled their way through an extraordinary tournament.
Southgate described the opponents as “underrated” but praised his own youthful squad for living up to the pressure.
I felt we would get there, he said. I knew we would have different sorts of battles because Denmark are so underrated as a team.
They did cause us a lot of problems. When youve waited as long as we have to get through a semi-final, the players, considering the limited international experience some of them have had, theyve done an incredible job.
The most pleasing thing is that weve given our fans and our nation a fantastic night, and the journey continues on for another four days. To come through that sort of a night we suffered in Moscow (in the World Cup semi-final) and on a night like this weve managed to put things right.
Reflecting on Kane seeing his penalty saved and subsequent scoring, Southgate was thankful that the miss had become insignificant.
Theres nobody youve rather have on it, but youre up against a great goalkeeper who hes obviously faced a lot of times, he said. But thankfully thats now immaterial.
The party cannot last too much longer, though, as no trophy has been won yet. Thus, Southgate is already thinking ahead to Sunday.
Were in the final and weve got to enjoy that fact. But theres one more massive hurdle to try and conquer.
