Gareth Southgate: England under no illusion after Belgium loss

Southgate

England's remarkable World Cup semi-final run has come with a dose of reality that is fuelling manager Gareth Southgate's desire to keep developing and evolving.

Football is not coming home this summer but this bold, young side have managed to reconnect with fans that had become disillusioned over the years.

England's players took the advice to write their own stories and managed to reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in 28 years, only just falling short of Sunday's showpiece finale.

That agonising 2-1 extra-time defeat to wily Croatia was compounded on Saturday as Belgium's 'Golden Generation' won the third-place play-off 2-0 in St Petersburg. Both matches underlined Southgate's belief that his semi-finalists are still not a top-four team, but the Three Lions boss hopes to use the summer as a springboard looking ahead to Euro 2020.

"We are proud of what we've done, but we're under no illusion as a team as to where we stand," said Southgate, the England manager. "We don't kid ourselves at all. We know exactly the areas that we hope to get better in, and we really enjoy working with this group of players. We're not in club football where we have a chequebook where we can go and buy new players. We have to coach and develop and improve as a group.

"That then requires the players to have a willingness to learn and improve, and they've shown that in abundance over the last seven weeks in particular so that continues.

"It's nice that we've reached a semi-final because that builds belief and it gives some momentum to the team. There's some evidence that they can have some success and what that would feel like, which I think allows the players to commit even more to the England shirt.

"But we're also very realistic about the constant need to keep improving." Southgate and his group have learned a lot from their time in Russia, but the fact they were just 20 minutes from a World Cup final will continue to haunt them. It's a missed opportunity that the England manager recognises, yet the former defender could not ask any more from his young side. "We've not won a knockout game for 12 years with far more experienced teams than this one. We also recognised after the semi-final where we stood, which is exactly what we found out again today."
Simon Peach

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