Gareth’s not home and dry

ENGLAND boss Gareth Southgate disputes the idea that the Euro 2020 finals will be a “home” tournament for his red-hot outfit.

The Three Lions booked their place in next summer’s showpiece with the 7-0 crushing of Montenegro at Wembley on Thursday in the country’s 1,000th match.

But while England’s group games next June will be staged at the national stadium, they will then be forced to hit the road for two knockout games.

Only if they are successful in those will Southgate’s free-scoring troops return to Wembley for the semis and, fingers crossed, final.

The coach accepts that does give England an edge – but only potentially.

After all, if they do qualify, they are likely to be flying to Dublin and Rome for the last 16 and quarter-finals respectively.

That makes having one base camp pointless. Southgate is hinting they could have several different HQs during the finals.

The England boss said: “We’re pretty close to finalising everything but whatever we do we’ll never be anywhere for long enough periods to be in one place.

“There are things we can do to break it up. I know how key the environment is – and I think we got it right for the World Cup finals.

“It’s high on our list of priorities to get it right for next summer.

“We can’t play at Wembley pre-tournament so we’ve got to be elsewhere for a couple of friendlies – whether that’s here or abroad.

“Then for the tournament itself we have three home group games but you’d have to move down to London before each of them.

“And then, after the first three matches, we’re on the road again.

“So, in actual fact, it will be broken up a fair bit.”

Southgate was part of Terry Venables’ England side that lost on penalties to Germany in the semis at Euro 96 – the last time the country hosted a major finals.

The ex-Aston Villa defender added: “It will be a brilliant experience to have the group matches at home but there’s all sorts of possible ties in the knockout phase.

“There will be two massive knockout games away from here.

“We could end up playing Spain in Rome!”