Gareth Southgate: We want to give the nation a night to remember

Gareth Southgate has urged his England players to give the country a footballing evening to remember by seizing their moment at the European Championship and making history.

Southgate’s side will become the first England team to reach the final of a major tournament abroad with victory against the Netherlands at Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.

Players have seen footage of fans celebrating by throwing drinks at screenings of their knockout wins in Germany, and while Southgate had plastic beer cups thrown at him by supporters in the group stages, he now has the chance to lead England to their most glorious summer since 1966.

“I can remember what that is like from previous tournaments, so it’s one of the privileges of representing England that you have the chance to give people memories that stay with them for a long time,” said Southgate, who is expected to make a change to his starting line-up, with Marc Guehi returning from suspension for Ezri Konsa.

“Those enjoyable nights when everyone comes together and enjoys themselves. So, without a doubt, we want this game to be another one of those.”

Southgate has led his team to the semi-final stage of three of his four major tournaments and says he has drawn on his experiences in last-four clashes in his preparations to face Ronald Koeman’s side.

The clash at Borussia Dortmund’s stadium is a rematch of the Euro ‘96 fixture at Wembley in which Southgate played and England captured the imagination of the country with a 4-1 win that gave them momentum in the tournament.

As a manager, Southgate has led his team to the final of the last Euros but England’s only other final was at the 1966 World Cup, which was also on home soil. Reaching a final abroad is the next step for Southgate’s squad after setting records and changing the mindset of players during his eight years in charge.

He insists his young squad have none of the scars from previous tournament failure and has seen a change during the tournament after playing with ‘fear’ in the first two matches of the group stage.

“We’ve risen well to those challenges over the years and used them as motivation to break new ground,” Southgate said. “We’ve never been to a final outside of our own shores, so these are opportunities to make a difference.

“That’s how we have to look at it. It’s about their moment now, nothing that’s gone on in the past, none of that is their fault or concern. It really is this group of players who really have come together well over the last three or four weeks.”

England had not reached a semi-final of a major tournament since 1996 before Southgate’s arrival but after reaching the last-four stage at the 2018 World Cup, Southgate has been mindful not to “overprepare” his team ahead of potentially two era-defining matches in four days.

“We have a better understanding of that than when we were in Russia,” he said. “We didn’t fully appreciate how much of a demand that was.

“It’s been factored into all our operations for the last few years. For not just managing the day-to-day but the weeks we’ve been away. Managing staff energy, managing players’ energy.

“I suppose in Russia winning a knockout game was the first target and it felt that from that moment on was the change of mindset,” said Southgate. “We’ve gone further in more recent tournaments and nobody is thinking a quarter-final is anywhere near enough.

“Now we’re in the real business end of the tournament which of course given that’s only the third time in however many years, that’s not to be underestimated but for us as a group, the great thing is we’re not sitting here happy with a semi-final, we want to go further and our aim is to come here and win it and we are now two games away from doing that.”