“Tonight was an example of cup football,” expressed Gareth Southgate in his pre-match press conference, addressing the media following England’s remarkable comeback victory over Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen.
The Three Lions had fallen behind within the opening half-hour to an Ivan Schranz goal, and they looked utterly devoid of answers for the majority of the match. Yet they were given a lifeline, five minutes into injury time, as Jude Bellingham rose above the penalty spot to smash home the equaliser in style.
Harry Kane needed just seconds of extra time to find what would prove to be the winning goal, with substitute Ivan Toney registering the crucial assist just minutes into his cameo appearance.
“All along, the players that have come into the game have come on and had an impact,” explained Southgate, admitting that he “knew Ivan [Toney] had the hump with me for putting him on [with just a minute of the match remaining], but I said that this could be the moment.”
“We showed the players a presentation about 1966 and how Geoff Hurst hadn’t played until the quarterfinals, the difficult route that England had had,” he added, explaining that he “just wanted to highlight that tournaments take you in strange places, difficult routes and the team wasn’t always flying.”
“They’d have been criticised at the start so it was just a bit of perspective really.”
“It’s one of the things we’ve done to recognise the value of the group. It was back at St George’s Park before we started [the tournament], but we’re always referring to these moments because it’s part of what creates a tournament-winning team,” he said.
The performance in Gelsenkirchen didn’t exactly set the world alight, and some of Southgate’s decisions – including playing Bukayo Saka at left-back – sparked questions from fans. The England boss admitted that “we have a little bit of a problem without a left-footed left-back, but I have to say that Kieran Trippier has done an incredible job for the team.”
“We just wanted to go with Bukayo Saka at that moment to go with another attacking player, basically,” he explained, adding that handing Luke Shaw his first minutes since his February injury “would have been a risk.”
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