England Perception Has Changed After Major Tournament Exploits – Southgate

Gareth Southgate insists that England’s recent successes in international competitions have given them “credibility” on the world stage.

The Three Lions‘ manager has hailed his team’s development ahead of Saturday night’s World Cup quarterfinal matchup against France.

England advanced to the semifinals of the last two international competitions before losing in the Euro 2020 championship game.

According to Southgate, there has always been some respect for England, but I believe we now have credibility.

“I think the rest of the world believes that England is competitive and they know that we have performed under pressure a lot more in the last few years. To get to a semi-final then a final.

“When I travel around Europe and the world and meet football people, there’s definitely a greater appreciation of what we’ve done.”

England had not been to the semifinals of a major tournament since Euro ’96 before Southgate took control in 2016.

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The manager added in his interview: “Four years ago we may have talked well, but we didn’t have real evidence of winning important games and experiencing important nights together as a group.

“I think over this period of time we’ve had so many of those occasions that now there’s less satisfaction with getting to the quarter-finals, there’s more desire to go further and there’s more evidence that we’ve come through these nights well. I think for any team that’s an important part of growing.”

Southgate leads all England coaches in major tournament victories with nine to his name. which is one more than manager Sir Alf Ramsey, a World Cup champion (eight).

Despite all of his achievements, Southgate continues to draw criticism from the English people for what they see as his pragmatic approach. It would be intriguing to see if his job is safe if England’s team loses versus France.