Taking positives

SAINT PETERSBURG — Oddsmakers originally put England at 18-to-1 to win this World Cup, the seventh-best odds of the 32 teams in this tournament.

They were better odds than coach Gareth Southgate gave a squad that was the second-youngest at this tournament.

“At the moment we all feel the pain of the defeat,” Southgate said following England’s 2-1 extra time loss to Croatia.

“Did we expect to be in this position?” he asked. “I don’t think realistically any of us did.

“But when you’ve got to this point and played in the way we have and played as well as we did in the first half, then you want to take those opportunities in life.”

Southgate’s disappointment was at least somewhat levelled by the reaction the Three Lions received from their supporters just two years following an embarrassing exit at the European Championship.

“The reaction of the supporters at the end compared to two years ago tells (England’s players) that, first and foremost, experiences with England can be positive,” he said.

“The country are very proud of what they’ve done and the way they’ve played. There will, in time, be a lot of positives to take.”

One of those positives won’t be the throw-away third-place game that takes place in 48 hours.

“It’s not a game any team wants to play in,” Southgate added.