Southgate keen to see reaction in Sofia after surprise defeat

Gareth Southgate is confident England will bounce back from their surprise 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic and get their Euro 2020 qualification back on track against Bulgaria.

The Three Lions lost their first European or World Cup qualifier in a decade when going down in Prague on Friday night, when winning would have booked them a place at the finals.

Ahead of tonight’s Group A clash in Sofia, England boss Southgate said: “We have a very honest group and are very selfreflective.

“They don’t need me to tell them when they haven’t played at the level they can. The key is always to recover from the result. We have to move forward and focus on tomorrow.

“I don’t think defeats harm teams if the reaction is good.

“Then what you learn from defeats and the resilience from defeats are important parts of a player’s career.

“I have always maintained we have to qualify, and we haven’t secured that qualification yet and our focus tomorrow is to get the performance and result.”

There has been suggestion that Southgate may revert to a three-man defence which was used to great effect during last year’s run to the World Cup semi-final but the England boss remained coy on the idea.

“We are always looking at every aspect,” he added. “We train and have meetings specifically on every area of the performance. There is always particular focus when an area is not going too well.

“In terms of tactical adjustments, we are always thinking about the best way to get the best players on the field, be the most dangerous, to get the best of our strengths but hide our weaknesses.

“We have done that over three years. We have tried different formations, we tried something first half the other night. In hindsight – because of the result – it didn’t work but it doesn’t mean it was wrong to have a go at it.”

Gareth Southgate hopes the Three Lions can bounce back.