Scotland? Southgate won’t speculate
Gareth Southgate was in the England side that dealt Scotland a near terminal blow at Euro 96.
He was part of the Three Lions rearguard which held firm before Alan Shearer scored, Gary Mcallister missed a penalty and Paul Gascoigne netted a typically-audacious goal to defeat Craig Brown’s side 2-0.
Twenty-four years on, the England manager knows he could be re-enacting an old battle, with last night’s Euro 2020 draw in Bucharest throwing up the potential of a clash of the Auld Enemies at Wembley on Friday, June 19.
First, Scotland have to negotiate play-offs against Israel and either Norway or Serbia in March.
And Southgate is far too pragmatic an individual to get involved in speculation about facing up to Scotland, something he has already experienced as England manager in the two qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup Finals.
A goal in injury-time from Harry Kane stole a point at Hampden, but earlier in the campaign, Scotland were well beaten, 3-0 at Wembley.
Last night, Southgate was more focused on Croatia, the side who knocked his men out of last summer’s semi-final in Russia.
England take on Zlatko Dalic’s side in their opening match of the tournament at Wembley on Sunday, June 14.
“You can never make up for losing a World Cup semi-final,” Southgate said. “But that game will be long gone come next summer.
“There has been very little between the teams in our last three games against them, and there’s quite an interesting contrast.
“They have hugely experienced players, we’re at the other end of the scale.
“So we want to make Wembley somewhere that teams fear coming and we do that via the atmosphere in the stadium.”
Winning the group would pit England against the runner-up from Group F, which contains Germany, France and Portugal.
“Everybody will be looking at Group F thinking they’re pleased they’re not in it,” said Southgate.