BOTTLE OF BRITAIN
Southgate warns his Lions to stay calm storm of this in the ferocious local derby which is a ‘cup final’ game for Wales
GARETH SOUTHGATE warned his players to keep their cool in the heat of the Battle of Britain showdown.
The Three Lions boss admits he expects the contest to be a derby and cup tie rolled into one in the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium.
Wales looked a spent force in their first two games and England are expected to win.
But Southgate remembers all too well what happened at the 2016 Euros – when England needed a last-gasp Daniel Sturridge winner in Lens to see off the Welsh 2-1 in a group stage clash – to take anything for granted.
He was working then as a UEFA match observer, was at the game and expects the rivalry to be a great leveller for a match which will ultimately decide the qualification fate of both teams.
Southgate said: “Cup ties can be a leveller but we have to make sure our emotional focus is on what we do well. Our boys have got experience of these types of games.
“When we played Scotland at the last Euros, physically they found a level they hadn’t found before and couldn’t find in the game after. So that is the nature of this game.
“But you have to ride through that and make sure our quality counts and we are composed in our play.
“You have to match the spirit and display the quality with the ball that allows us to be ruthless.”
Southgate is also well aware that all eyes are on England in a way that does not happen in the Premier League. They were feted as potential winners after sticking six past Iran, then came crashing down to earth after being held by the USA.
It was a similar story in last year’s Euros when England kicked off with a win against Croatia, were held by Scotland, after which there was doom and gloom, before beating Czech Republic 1-0, sparking a run to the final. Southgate added: “There are 32 teams here and probably 26 teams in crisis at the moment!
“That’s a World Cup, every individual country will have their own support entirely focused. This is one of the things you have to handle at a tournament.
“With a club, there are 20
stories on a Premier League weekend and when you are at a World Cup there is only one.
“And you have to live with that and be strong enough to come through that and be calm enough to come through it as a group of players.
“We are fortunate that a lot of our players have lived it. For some, it’s a second tournament, a third for some and this type of situation has always been there.
“It’s rare that we have won every game and scored as many goals as we want. To be honest you are never sitting comfortably and if we were it would be a worry because you don’t want that comfort. You need an edge.
“Any England game has a highly-motivated opponent and I don’t really see this being
any different to how the game was the other night. The opponent was huge in terms of their desire to beat us.
“When I started six years ago everybody told me that the national football didn’t matter.
“So I think we have helped to create the feeling that it does matter again and people are connected to it and want to watch us. That is a positive.”
Southgate says England must find a balance between the thumping win over Iran and the stalemate against the USA.
“No two games are the same,” he said. “We have shown in the first game how we can attack.
“We showed another side to ourselves in the second game and have to merge those two things as we go through the tournament to be a serious contender here in Qatar.”