As the team who came third throw a giant party, England return to a few fans behind barbed wire
BELGIUM returned home yesterday to sunny Brussels and a rapturous gathering of tens of thousands of supporters in the main square, an open-top bus ride and an audience with the country’s king. They also brought back their bronze medals.
In stark contrast, the FA had warned England supporters not to come to Birmingham Airport because there would be no public access and no celebrations as the team returned from Russia as the fourth best of 32. Harry Kane may have later been confirmed as the Golden Boot winner but nobody was in the mood to party. Instead, a loyal bunch stood behind fences and barbed wire waving flags. The last time England lost a World Cup semi-final in 1990, Paul Gascoigne donned fake boobs and 150,000 people lined the streets of Luton. Now the squad swapped hugs on the tarmac before being whisked away in cars. From the moment their last game was over, they return to the care of their club paymasters and the clubs want their stars to take holidays and rest.
After all, the Premier League season starts in 25 days.
Kane declined the chance to stay in Russia to collect the Golden Boot and returned with the England squad. It was a quiet retreat from what had been a much improved World Cup effort, despite losing three games — two against the Belgians.
‘A lot of the players had had some difficult experiences with England in the past so I’m so pleased for them that they now see what is possible and what that might feel like,’ Southgate told ITV News. ‘They’ll be hungry for more now.’ England supporters will hope there are reasons to lionise the Three Lions in years to come.
The FA made the decision to avoid a welcome home party after losing 2-1 to Croatia in the World Cup semi-final. Belgium’s Golden Generation obviously feel they have something to shout about.
They defeated England 2-0 in the third and fourth place play-off on Saturday and Southgate admitted that, yes, both he and his squad would have rather gone home.
Mentally and physically England looked knackered, that extra day’s rest greatly benefiting Belgium even if the goals that came from Thomas Meunier and Eden Hazard also owed much to the superior quality of a side talented enough to eliminate Brazil.
Southgate was certainly talked out. He has been terrific at this World Cup and credit to him for the manner in which he tried to extract one more decent performance from his players. But it was a tough ask when his young side were still coming to terms with how close they actually came to reaching a World Cup final.
They wanted to be in Moscow. Not in St Petersburg. Southgate nevertheless took the opportunity to thank his employers, revealing the details of a meeting he had with the FA last year when he outlined his vision for the team.
‘I think if I look back, probably a year, I had a long discussion with our board about how we wanted to evolve,’ he said. ‘ And they were brilliant. They didn’t put me under pressure to try to achieve a certain outcome, but they were keen that we showed signs of progress.
‘And they were happy to back my thoughts about putting some younger players in. So if I think back to that conversation, the last seven weeks have been exactly what we hoped they would be in terms of the improvement in the team, and the experiences for the younger group of players.
‘They will be buoyed by the positive experiences, of which there have been many. But equally we know, we are under no illusions, about where we sit in the world.’
Southgate has never tried to suggest anything different. Right now, his team are still a work in progress and still lacking the raw ability of the very best sides. He regards Belgium as perhaps the best of the lot, and England’s failure to beat them twice here only proves his point.
‘Defeats have been important for our development,’ he said. ‘We finished in the top four, deservedly in this tournament, helped by the draw. But we’re not a top-four team yet. And we know that.
‘So it’s nice that we’ve got the encouragement from the tournament; the belief from some of the experiences we’ve been through. But that allows us to go back and to identify exactly what we need to do. And for the players to reflect on that as well.’
There have been some success stories, of course. Jordan Pickford has proved himself England’s No 1 goalkeeper. What a tournament it has been for him. Ditto Kieran Trippier and Harry Maguire.
And John Stones has become the defender he has long promised to be. Mistakes were made but Southgate’s defence will grow in confidence and stature, with the England boss also keen to retain the experience of players like Gary Cahill and Phil Jones. He said Jones was unlucky not to be in the team after injury denied him the chance to stake a claim for a place in the March friendlies, while he has already had a conversation with Cahill about remaining involved despite now being 32.
As for the game, and their failure to record England’s second-best finish at a World Cup, Southgate was philosophical.
‘I think that to pick a team and not put some players out who were knackered was going to be difficult,’ he said. ‘Whether I made the right decision for a couple, in hindsight, perhaps not, because I’ve asked them to go a bit too far. That’s my fault. It was a really difficult game for them, the emotional and physical energy of the last match and then you’re playing one of the best counter-attacking teams.
‘So it was an enormous challenge for us to get the players to the level they needed to compete and they never stopped. The second half they never stopped. But would we have rather gone home two days ago? If I’m honest, yeah.’
As Southgate said, indeed as he had said already, there is room for improvement, things to reflect on. Not to mention new challenges to prepare for. Come September and there are matches against Spain and Switzerland; Croatia the following month. They represent a good test for a group who will now shift their focus to Euro 2020.
‘It’s for us to go away, look back on all of the games, see how we might improve,’ he said. ‘There’s always a balance of decisions you make that you’re really pleased with and things you think, “OK, how might we do that differently?” ’
But, hey, it was one hell of a ride; a tournament that, for England, exceeded all expectations. What happens next can actually wait for another day. Southgate deserved to have a beer with his staff and players back in Repino on Saturday night, and should now take a well-earned break.