Southgate: My players gave me everything
Gareth Southgate said his players had “given absolutely everything” as they finished fourth in the World Cup finals with a 2-0 defeat by Belgium in the third-place play-off, equalling the achievements of 1990.
The England manager defended his players, who conceded after four minutes when Thomas Meunier scored but came back in the second half before Eden Hazard claimed a second.
Southgate made five changes from the team who lost the semi-final to Croatia, saying his side had been unable to train in the aftermath.
He said: “I think they [Belgium] are a better side than us and we had to play flat out with a day less to recover. It was a game too far. Credit to them, they’re a top team and they’ll be thinking that they should have gone further than they did. From my point of view, our players have given absolutely everything right to the final whistle.”
Southgate’s team fly back to the United Kingdom at lunchtime today. Harry Kane did not add to his total of six goals, but after Romelu Lukaku failed to score it will take a hat-trick from Antoine Griezmann or Kylian Mbappe in the final to catch Kane as the tournament’s top goalscorer.
Southgate said: “We now have some big fixtures in the autumn, playing the likes of Spain, Switzerland and Croatia.
“These are great opportunities for us to develop, improve, try things, look at players.
“We have to try to constantly evolve and improve. We’ve done that, particularly over the last eight months.
“And we’ve ended up having a brilliant adventure here. Every member of our party, players and staff, has enjoyed it immensely.”
He added: “John Stones was absolutely outstanding and Jordan Pickford has had a wonderful tournament. We’ve finished in the final four, but we’re not a top-four team yet. Against the very best, we’ve come up short.”