The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Trippier: Beating Spain sets a benchmark
Tottenham full back Kieran Trippier believes England’s win against Spain on Monday night was a sta tement and should set the standard moving forward.
Gareth Southgate’s side stunned Spain in a 3-2 Nations League victory that will live long in the memory.
Raheem Sterling ended his 1,102-day wait for an international goal in style as he opened the scoring in Seville before netting again once Marcus Rashford had doubled the advantage.
The hosts rallied after the break as substitute Paco Alcacer headed home before Sergio Ramos grabbed another deep into stoppage time.
England’s first-half display was full of energy, pace and attacking prowess and, while things changed after the interval, the Three Lions showed their guile to prevent a comeback.
Trippier came into the side having been a substitute for the goalless draw in Croatia last Friday and believes the manner of England’s win now sets the benchmark.
“We want to beat the big teams,” he said.
“In the past few games we have had draws and not scored but I think we showed we can beat the top teams and defend well against the top teams.
“It was a statement and hopefully in the future we can put performances in like this as well.
“We want to win every game and play like that in every game. We know how well we can play as a team andin the first half we showed that.
“It is something to build on, we have a lot of confidence going into the next games.
“We just have to keep working on our formation in training and hopefully on matchdays we can put out the performances.”
Trippier added that the performance was equal to anything he achieved with England in the World Cup, where Southgate’s men reached the semi-final before losing to Croatia in extra time.
“I thought, allround it was a perfect performance,” he said.
“It is certainly up there for me personally in my career and I know for all the other lads. Spain haven’t lost in over 10 years in a competitive game (at home) so it just shows what we can do, the attacking threat we’ve got. We learned a lot as a group and individuals.”