Gareth Southgate admits he is ‘not satisfied’ despite reaching Euro 2024 semi-finals

England booked their place in the semi-finals of Euro 2024 with a penalty shootout win over Switzerland on Saturday, though boss Gareth Southgate has higher aspirations for his team

Gareth Southgate has changed England’s footballing “mindset” during his eight years in charge.

England have a new mentality in tournaments which carries them through tough moments and they get the job done even when they are not playing well. They have gone further than the likes of Germany, Portugal and Italy because they never know when they are beaten.

It is a remarkable quality to have and is reminiscent of Germany teams in the past as they had a never-say-die attitude in their footballing DNA. Former Three Lions boss Sven Goran Eriksson famously called England a “quarter final team” because his Golden Generation kept getting stuck at the last eight stage even with the likes of David Beckham and Co.

Now England go to major tournaments like this Euros when they are not satisfied just to reach the knock-out stages as Southgate has turned them into genuine contenders. The former England players – and ones not remotely good enough to play for England – are queuing up to give their verdicts after every performance but were not as good in their international careers.

England have managed just one win in 90 minutes in the Euros so far – against Serbia in the Group stages – and needed extra time to beat Slovakia and now penalties to get past Switzerland.

But years ago, England would have happily been THAT team who were not pretty, did not play well and yet still ended up in semi finals and finals in major tournaments. They face a hard test against Holland in Dortmund on Wednesday but they are determined to go one step further.

And if they reach the final, it will be about going one better than in the last Euros when they lost to Italy on penalties. Southgate said: “I think the difference is, you know, we arrive in a quarter-final, we’re not satisfied with that, so there is definitely a mindset shift in what we feel is acceptable as a team, where we want to end up.

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“Now within that it’s knock-out football, the margins are so fine as we’ve seen against Switzerland, that can easily tip the other way and it’s a different story. But those teams that have won consistently, they have that mindset, they’re not just satisfied with being in quarter-finals, they’re pushing in and that’s what we have to continue.”

Bukayo Saka saved England this time with a man-of-the-match display capped off with an equaliser to take the Switzerland tie into extra time and then he scored in the shoot-out.

After being racially abused – along with Marcus Rashford and Jason Sancho – after missing a penalty in the shoot-out in the last Euros, it was a special moment for the Arsenal winger. There was personal redemption in there too after showing such incredible courage.

England no longer fear penalty shoot-outs and Southgate says the belief and spirit in the group is the foundation for success. He also reiterated they do not want it to finish at the semi final stage.

Southgate added: “This isn’t where we want it to end, you know, you don’t necessarily want to speak about that too much, it is an unusual achievement for even the most successful nations.

“But these guys, they’ve shown more than being able to just play, and navigating tournaments, you need lots of other qualities, as I said earlier, it is that resilience, it is that ability to stay composed when you go behind in games, or when momentum’s against you.

“We have won three penalty shoot-outs out of four, all those little bits build character, build belief, and yeah, hopefully it’s not just this tournament. But given the age of the squad and their experiences now, they’ll have that belief for a long time, it should put England in a good place, but that’s the future – we’ve got a good week ahead of us.”

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