Jadon Sancho gets first start at European Championships – Southgate ‘chuffed’ to make nation proud
Gareth Southgate says it brilliant to have made three semi-finals in three years but insists this time England want to go two steps further and win the competition.
The former Crystal Palace defender handed South Londoner Jadon Sancho his first start of the competition.
Harry Kane scored the opener just three minutes in before Harry Maguire’s header just after the restart made it two. Kane got his second of the match when he nodded home from close range, before Jordan Henderson scored his first England goal to make it four.
Speaking to the BBC, Southgate said: “The players have been fantastic, to play as well as they did in a game that has so much resting on it was really impressive.
“It’s a strange feeling, at this moment I’m thinking of the players that didn’t get on the pitch, because the likes of Conor Coady, Ben Chilwell, Sam Johnstone and Aaron Ramsdale are the ones that are making this team successful.
“The spirit of the group is phenomenal and whoever comes in does the job, the squad mentality has been fantastic.
“I’m spending more energy worrying about the people who I have to leave out of the 26-man squad. They’re all good players, none of them deserve to be left out.
“It’s fabulous, I suppose it’s still sinking in a bit, we’re in another semi-final, that’s three in three years. But we obviously want to go two steps further.
“I know what will be happening back home. They should enjoy it, it’s been a long year for everybody. I’m chuffed that the performances we have put on have given people such enjoyment and happiness.
“We’ve always known we have players that we need to physically look after. We’ve been able to introduce those guys in. We know that across seven games the squad is so important.
“Tonight we were trying to manage people that had knocks, people that are on yellow cards. All of those things are going through your mind.
“It’s fabulous for our country, we’re in a semi-final at Wembley. Everybody can really look forward to that, it’s brilliant.”