Euro 2020: Gareth Southgate says England aspire to play champagne football

England kept a third clean sheet against Czech Republic in their final Group D fixture and thanks to Raheem Sterling’s goal in the first half, managed to book their tickets to the Round of 16 stage as table-toppers. Manager Gareth Southgate was pleased by England’s professional display in the group stages.

Asked by BBC Radio Live 5 about expectations from the Three Lions to play ‘champagne football’, Southgate said, “We would like to see that as well.”

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think if you spoke to the players, we spoke a lot about that freedom, but we are a little bit short in a few areas of match fitness and sharpness, and I thought as the game wore on that started to take its toll a bit.

“We have hit the woodwork in all three matches and the other thing we have to get better on is our attacking set-play which is normally such a good source of goals for us and our deliveries have been really poor.

“We are difficult to score against at the moment and although we’re not perhaps flowing as much as we’d like, that solidity is critical for any team doing well.”

In three matches at Euro 2020 so far, Raheem Sterling has been the only goal-scorer for England, scoring twice against Croatia and Scotland. Despite having several talented forwards in the side including the likes of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, England have drawn blanks in front of goal.
However, Jordan Pickford, standing in between the sticks at the other end, has rarely been threatened in the competition. Southgate also admitted to being satisfied by the way England built their moves in the first half against the Czech Republic.

“I enjoyed a lot of our build-up play,” he said. “In the first half in particular, the interchange of positions of our forwards was very effective.

“I think what they’re showing is adaptability and resilience. We’ve had to make so many changes and known that players right from the start weren’t available.”

The fact that the head coach was able to give Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson time on the pitch, both of whom have recovered from injuries only recently, was also a positive on the night.

“It was the first time we’ve seen Harry Maguire tonight, and we’ve only seen 45 minutes for Jordan Henderson. We’re dealing with all those issues and striding on and we know there are bigger tests ahead.

“All they can do as players is win the group, which they have,” concluded Southgate.