Gareth Southgate cautions England fans

England manager Gareth Southgate has called on fans to appreciate victories when they get them and not take the wins that the Three Lions get at the Euros championship for granted. Southgate saw his side start their tournament with a labored 1-0 victory over Serbia last week.

Despite the winning start to the competition, England fans criticized the style of play of the team and how they got the victory while demanding a more proactive approach compared to the conservative style that was on display.

However, Gareth Southgate called on the fans to be retrospective, especially as England had only won a single opening game at the championship before Euro 2024, which now makes it the second time they have ever won their opening match at the competition.

“Winning matches in tournaments is incredibly hard. In this tournament, you’ve now got incredible support for all the teams in the stadiums as well, which is a little different to the last two tournaments. We’ve had some good results over the years so maybe even we take results for granted, I should let the boys enjoy it more than they do. I hope they have a little bit longer than me!” Southgate said.

Furthermore, he stated that his focus is to qualify from the group, with two tough opponents and two games to go to achieve that, even though he admitted that the England job is one of the most difficult jobs in the world and one that comes with a lot of pressure.

Last week, England took the lead through Jude Bellingham’s bullet header after just 12 minutes against Serbia and dominated the first half in Gelsenkirchen. Disappointingly, the 2021 losing finalists code only mustered five shots throughout the match as Serbia took over the possession after the break.

England will face Denmark in their second group stage game on Thursday, with the Danes drawing 1-1 with Slovenia in their opener.