Southgate not surprised by gap to elite

England were pushed to their “absolute limit” yet still fell short in France – a gap to the elite that does not surprise manager Gareth Southgate.

Parachuted into the hotseat in September, a promising four-match interim stint persuaded the Football Association to hand their under-21s boss the senior job on a permanent basis.

Southgate, pictured, has been making steady progress behind the scenes ever since, although the challenge ahead of him was made clearer at the Stade de France on Tuesday night. Harry Kane opened the scoring with a beautiful team goal as England looked lively in attack, but out of possession they were toyed with as a young, athletic French team won 3-2 in Paris.

It would likely have been worse was it not for Raphael Varane’s video-assisted sending off at the start of the second half, with Southgate admitting the gap to the likes of France, Germany and Spain is as big as he envisaged.

“No (it’s not bigger than I thought), if I’m honest,” the England boss said. “I think it’s absolutely what I thought. We’ve been competitive in all three games (against Spain, Germany and France) for long periods of time, but I think we’ve had to play at our absolute limit to stay in all three of those matches. I think that has shown in the latter stages of all of those games. “The pleasing thing is that the players are taking on board tactical information. “The three games have provided a different test. “In reality I am not surprised. Those teams are the very best. We haven’t in the last few years got anywhere near any of those teams when it’s come to tournaments and finals and the rest of it, so that’s why we need to play them.”