Did not do enough to win, admits Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate has revealed that England didn’t do enough in their 2-1 loss to the Czech Republic. A win would have sent the Three Lions to Euro 2020 but the English fell to their first defeat of their qualification campaign conceding a goal in either half despite an early Harry Kane goal.
After winning their first four games of the qualification campaign quite easily, many expected the English to secure qualification to the Euro 2020 with a win against the Czech Republic. However, nothing went the way they planned it and instead after conceding two goals in either half, England fell to the first defeat of their qualification campaign. However, despite the loss, anticipation over England’s chance of ending a 50-year trophy drought is high with the semi-finals and finals set to be played at Wembley.
That increases their chances of a trophy and the Three Lions’ performances at and since the 2018 World Cup see them walk into the Euro 2020 as the second-favourites to win the competition. Yet England manager Gareth Southgate has admitted that the loss was a reality check and something that his team has to respond to. The former Middlesbrough manager went on to add that the Three Lions did not do enough to win and their performance was simply not good enough.
“Yes, I think it was a reality check. We are always very realistic about where we sit. We have an exciting team that usually look like scoring goals. We know there is a long way for us to go to become one of the top teams in Europe. We've got to respond to that performance on Monday and accept any criticism that comes our way,” admitted Southgate reports Sky Sports.
However, things could have gone much worse for the English with the Czech Republic doing very well to test Jordan Pickford. They took full advantage of England’s defensive issues but while they did not dominate the ball the Czech Republic played well on the counter. So well, that they would finish with 17 shots on goal and eight on target compared to England’s seven and four respectively.
"Tonight we didn't do enough to win the game. Our performance wasn't good enough, simple as that. We probably should have got a draw out of it, but in the end the goal we conceded was typical of the chances we gave away throughout the night. There are things we can look back on, but collectively we have to accept that there weren't enough good performances,” concluded Southgate.