A NEW NIGHT TO REMEMBER
GARETH SOUTHGATE has warned his England players they must not get carried away by their ‘Munich moment.’
Southgate led England to a glorious win over Spain, arguably the business. “Ramos is one of the best of all time,” said Dier. “He does everything so well but, at the same time, he puts his foot down and he’s not going to be bullied – we have to be the same way.”
Ramos is also a master of the darker arts and Dier and England showed they are becoming craftier with a secondhalf backs-to-the-wall display that featured no little time-wasting.
“I don’t really like this ‘streetwise’ thing really, it’s not my style,” he said.
“But it is just a question of being smart at the right times. It was frustrating Spain and the crowd.
“We have experienced that. It is just maturity really, knowing when to win fouls, when to take your time. We did those things well.”
Dier is not the type of character to get carried away with a landmark result and points out England should have made it a memorable double-header by beating Croatia last Friday. He said: country’s best victory since beating Germany 5-1 in 2001.
“The problem with that is Germany went on to the World Cup final and we did not get that far, did we?” said the England boss.
He added: “I get the Munich “Maybe because there weren’t any fans there and because we missed a few chances, our performance in Croatia kind of went under the radar. But we went into the Spain game with fantastic attacking players who can counter at such pace with such quality.
“I’m so happy for Raheem Sterling to have scored two and likewise for Marcus Rashford after Friday, to have bounced back and scored is fantastic. “Harry Kane is the best in the world at holding the ball up and bringing others into play.” In that first half Spain could not handle England’s front three. And no-one, certainly not Southgate, is likely to undervalue Dier’s importance to this brave new England. reference and it is difficult for the players to fully understand what they have done because Spain had such a run without losing and had momentum. For some of the players it is a night they have to take forward with them.”