Gareth Southgate admitted England have surpassed his expectations after his young side crowned a resurgent year by avenging their World Cup heartbreak and qualifying for next summer’s Nations League finals with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Croatia.
England’s manager spoke with pride about his squad’s development in 2018 and praised his players for showing resilience against opponents who stopped them from reaching the World Cup final four months ago. Andrej Kramaric’s deflected strike had left England at risk of relegation to Division B, raising the prospect of Croatia snatching top spot from Spain in Group A4, only for late goals from Jesse Lingard and Harry Kane to spark jubilant scenes on and off the pitch at Wembley.
“I don’t think I could have envisaged all this,” Southgate said. “I’m hugely proud of all the players and staff. We’ve grown together. We’ve improved with every step. Today was another big occasion. Plenty of pressure but they coped with it really well. We played so well in the first half and had good chances. Then we had to show another side, the resilience to stay in it.
“We had a five to 10-minute period after Croatia scored with a couple of counterattacks. Then we may be a new England but we score from a long throw and a wide free-kick. Nothing changes but what pleases me is the connection with the fans. I’ve not heard Wembley like that for years. We want to continue on these days and nights and build on it. That energy helped us get over the line.”
England, who will find out their semi-final opponents at next month’s draw in Dublin, took huge pride from finishing top of a group containing Croatia and Spain. “You could look at the group with France, Germany and Holland, but I think ours on form has been the toughest to come through,” Southgate said. “That’s a significant step for us. We were very close against Spain here as well. The quality of the performances and the depth of the squad that has emerged – we had real options on the bench to change the game, and that’s a real shift over the last couple of months.”
Portugal will host the finals after finishing top of their group and Southgate, who saw even clearer evidence of England’s potential in last month’s thrilling victory in Spain, urged his team not to let their standards drop.
“We’re not perfect but we are improving,” he said. “We have a real desire and hunger to keep improving. Slowly we are starting to beat those top teams. We’ve had a tough run but we’ve learned so much from it. You have to be near on perfect against the best teams. You are not allowed to be sloppy in any way. That has allowed us to progress.”
“The World Cup was obviously far bigger but then you look at the next challenge. This was a great opportunity to test ourselves against top teams. We now have more opportunities to excite our supporters. Next year looks really exciting.”
Kane had missed a couple of chances before turning Ben Chilwell’s free-kick past Lovre Kalinic. “Harry is the best goalscorer in the world,” Southgate said. “You’re always loth to take a player off of his ability. I know people have questioned some of those decisions over the summer but he’s our main penalty-taker, our leader. In 98% of the games, his hold-up play and goalscoring is critical. He played a fantastic pass for Raheem Sterling after dropping off deep and turning in the first half. We have huge belief in him. He is so hungry to lead the team on.”
