Gareth Southgate has warned England in opposition to complacency after touchdown a beneficial draw for the group stage of Euro 2024, although conceded he was happy to keep away from a few of the larger nations.
The Three Lions, crushed finalists on the final event, discovered their destiny at Saturday’s attract Hamburg and might now start getting ready to tackle Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.
Though the Danes had been the very best ranked aspect in Pot 2, England averted some large groups – comparable to Italy and the Netherlands – from the opposite pots, in addition to different residence nations, however Southgate will definitely not be taking Group C flippantly.
Chatting with the BBC, Southgate mentioned: ‘Nicely I’ve stood right here after fairly just a few attracts and also you all the time really feel the identical approach. You may have a look at it on paper however the video games aren’t performed on paper!
‘Clearly there’s one or two groups you’re glad to keep away from, actually in a few of these Pot 3s and Pot 4s, however the entire groups we play are greater than succesful.’
He continued: ‘You have a look at Serbia with a centre-forward like [Aleksandar] Mitrovic and you must be very cautious about assuming issues if you see these attracts, that’s for sure.
‘Slovenia was one of many first video games I had as England supervisor and I’ll all the time keep in mind that Joe Hart made a save that day that, if he doesn’t make it, I may not nonetheless be England supervisor!
‘We’re vastly excited to be a part of the event, we all know the expectation at residence, we’ve developed loads as a staff in the previous couple of years.
‘We’re used to those large video games, so we’re prepared for that expectation, and we hope we can provide our supporters some extra good nights like I hope we now have in the previous couple of tournaments.’
Requested if he was happy to keep away from one other residence nation, he continued: ‘Nicely they’re good events, significantly for the followers, and so they’re nice video games to play in so I used to be actually relaxed about all of it.
‘I assume the benefit we’ve bought, having been in just a few tournaments, you understand the format, you understand the subsequent goal is to get out of the group, and then you definately attempt to construct from there actually.’
On whether or not England have already got a base in thoughts for the event, Southgate added: ‘We’re now in a position to work all of that out, that’s the great thing about the draw.
‘We now have clear alternative to check the opposition, we are able to have a look at the timing of arriving in Germany as a result of we’ll have the date of the primary sport. We will now begin to nail down the place we keep as properly. So it simply provides you much more readability.’
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