GUIMARAES – England manager Gareth
Southgate insisted he cannot treat Sunday’s Nations League third-place playoff
against Switzerland as a “practice match” with tens of thousands of fans having
travelled to Portugal to support his side.
Southgate labelled those fans that caused
trouble in Porto on Wednesday night ahead of Thursday’s 3-1 semi-final defeat
to the Netherlands an “embarrassment”.
However, the England boss said he had a
duty to those that have travelled without causing problems to put on a
performance against the Swiss.
“We lost an important game on Thursday. We’ve
got thousands of fans here and we have to make sure our performance is one that
gives them something back,” said Southgate on Saturday.
“Every time we take the field, we are
learning. No England international is a practice match.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/BenChilwell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BenChilwell, @MarcusRashford and @JHenderson are doubts heading into the game, with a couple of other players to be assessed at training later today. pic.twitter.com/C12eF65Trc
— England (@England)
Defeat to the Dutch was the second time in
a year England have lost a semi-final after losing out in the last four of the
World Cup in similar circumstances to Croatia as they let an early lead slip
away.
However, Southgate rejected comparisons
between the two games and believes England’s determination to stick to their
gameplan of playing out from the back is a sign of progress, even if it
did cost his side dearly.
John Stones and Ross Barkley gifted away
possession on the edge of their own box for both the Netherlands’ goals in
extra-time.
Yet, Southgate pointed to England’s best
move of the game in Guimaraes that led to Jesse Lingard’s goal being ruled out
by the finest of margins for offside after a VAR review, which started with
Stones’ pass from deep inside his own box.
“We certainly did not stop trying to play
out the other night, whether we did it effectively is another case in point,”
added Southgate.
“The errors we made were not because we
were trying to play out from the back, they were errors in decision making.
“When we played out and played well, the
move for the disallowed goal started on our byline, the move for the (Marcus)
Rashford chance in the first half, we played right through the thirds of the
pitch.”
Southgate is expected to be without Ben
Chilwell, Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford due to injury and could make
many more changes.
Harry Kane is likely to return as captain
in place of Rashford after starting on the bench on Thursday.