Gareth proud of fourth

Sunday Mail

England have performed above expectation in Russia but also admit ted his team are still outside the footballing elite.

The England boss feels progress has been made and that his team can look towards the future with optimism. And that didn’t look possible when he inherited a squad still trying to come to terms with their Euro 2016 humiliation and Sam Allardyce’s brief reign.

Southgate said: “I ’ m incredibly proud of what these players have done for England. Just three nights ago, we were 20 minutes from the World Cup Final so for the players to lift themselves for this game was very difficult.

“Both physical ly and emotionally, to go to the wire in the semi-final was an incredible experience for everybody. That’s on the back of a quarter-final and a second-round game that went to the death as well.

“You’re so close to the biggest possible prize and af ter losing ever yone wanted to go home. But we wanted to try to get a medal today. We were keen to finish on a positive note.

“But no recriminations. The effort was there. The quality of play at times was there up to a point but quite simply we’ve played a better team.

“We’ve played a team who are far ahead of us in their development as a group and are probably Belgium’s best-ever team. We’re not at that stage just yet.

“But it’s important to tell the team how proud I am – we had not won a knock-out game at the World Cup for 12 years.”