Colombia have top players... so do we
be involved in. It looked like Colombia had 30,000 or 40,000 fans in the stadium for their last game. I went to two of their games in Brazil – they were incredible occasions.
The Colombians, spearheaded by Falcao, are ranked 16th in the world to England’s 12th and Southgate said: “They have some top players, some top attacking players in particular. But we also have some really good players who are full of belief and looking forward to this challenge.”
“Whoever we play we believe we’re capable of beating. Whoever we play are capable of, in a one-off game, beating us.
“But we had to make a decision we felt gave us the best opportunity of preparing the whole squad for the game.
“That is what we tried to do.
“If we don’t win, I understand people would say whatever about the Belgium game as well, but you’ve got to take decisions you believe are the right ones.”
It was a big decision and, after having the nation stand back and applaud the incredible job he has done in rescuing English football from the doldrums of two years ago, now he is finally putting that reputation out there to be judged more critically.
About an hour after the game a dozen of the newspaper reporters following England around Russia were sat on two rows of chairs in front of Southgate in a small TV studio buried under the main structure of the Kaliningrad Stadium.
Nobody was filming, but there was a red light on over the door.
A FIFA official was stood just outside listening for a tell-tale knock as there was no way of opening the door from the inside.
Just over 24 hours earlier a more buoyant cast had been