Southgate gauges gap to best as England lose in France
Editorial
14. juni 2017England manager Gareth Southgate admitted Tuesday’s 3-2 friendly defeat to France in Paris provided further evidence of how far his side still have to go before they can be considered contenders at next year’s World Cup.
Artikkelen fortsetter under annonsen
«If I’m honest it is absolutely what I thought. We have been competitive in all three games but we needed to play at our absolute limits to stay in all of those matches and that has shown in the end,» Southgate said.
«Those three games have provided different tests — with Spain it was their ability to keep the ball better than us and today it was slightly different, but physically the demands their players posed meant we started to tire and that led to a mistake at the third goal.»
England are on course to qualify for the finals in Russia, which begin in a year’s time, despite needing a last-gasp Kane goal to get a 2-2 draw in Scotland last weekend.
But just setting foot in France, where they suffered a humiliating exit from Euro 2016 to Iceland, reminded them of their poor record at major tournaments.
«Those teams are the very best. We haven’t in the last few years got anywhere near any of those teams when it has come to tournaments,» said Southgate, who played with a three-man central defence, while giving chances to the likes of Tom Heaton and Kieran Trippier.
«We need to see the reality of where we are, and you have got to test yourself against the best otherwise it can mask where you are as a team.»
READ MORE: Ranieri set to join French club Nantes
