Southgate: We showed courage
SEVILLE: England’s Gareth Southgate praised his side for playing with courage and bravery to win 3-2 away to Spain in the Nations League on Monday and said the experience of beating one of the world’s top sides would serve them well.
England ran riot to take a 3-0 half-time lead through Raheem Sterling’s double and a Marcus Rashford strike although Spain substitute Paco Alcacer netted just before the hour and captain Sergio Ramos headed a last-gasp goal for the hosts.
It was Spain’s first home loss in a competitive game for 15 years.
It means England keep alive their hopes of finishing top of Group 4 in the Nations League A, the position Spain had needed only a point to all-but-guarantee would be theirs.
“The quality of the performance was great, we played with courage, we used the ball with courage,” Southgate told a news conference.
“When you come to an opponent with the quality of Spain, and try to outplay them, they’ll unpick you as they did in the last seven minutes. We showed real quality, quality on the counter and quality in our finishes.”
Although England defied expectations to reach this year’s World Cup semi-finals, they have a poor record against stronger teams in competitive games — their last major success having been a 5-1 win away to Germany in a World Cup qualifier in 2001.
“I think this is a great reference for the young players, you need wins and positive experiences to give you confidence for the future,” added Southgate, who fielded England’s youngest starting side this century.
“This helps with the ability to be able to talk to other players who come into the squad. We won’t get carried away, we know there’s lots to work on, we conceded two really poor goals but I think it will give them huge belief.
“It’s one less question we have to answer. The World Cup was a brilliant experience for us, we’ve made a big step and we had an unprecedented run of fixtures after the tournament. We’ve played some of the top teams in the world and with a win against Spain and a draw against Croatia, we’ve made progress.”
Rashford took part in England’s run to the last four at the World Cup in Russia but ranked the win over Spain, which followed a goalless Nations League stalemate in Croatia on Friday, as his greatest victory with the national team.
“That’s the biggest win for us, it’s a great feeling, it has a huge effect on us,” the Manchester United striker said.
Meanwhile, Spain coach Luis Enrique resisted the temptation to criticise his players after their “awful” first-half display.
“Our performance in the first half was awful, we have to recognise that, we could not press well and the first goal killed us,” Luis Enrique said after his first defeat as Spain coach, having won all three of his previous games.
“The normal thing would have been to kill the players at half-time but I tried to keep their spirits up and told them many top teams have suffered recently.”