LONDON – England manager Gareth Southgate believes his side
have improved since last year's World Cup but admits winning next
summer's Euro 2020 Finals will be a massive challenge.
England reached the semi-finals in Russia in Southgate's first
competition in charge.
Their 4-0 win in Kosovo on Sunday ensured they finished top of Group
A in Euro 2020 qualifying and they will be among the top seeds when
the draw is made on November 30.
"I would say that we're definitely further ahead than we were heading
into the Russia World Cup but we made massive strides in this period
(between the end of qualification and the tournament
itself)," Southgate told reporters.
"We've got to make sure that to get the level of performance next
summer, we have to improve in the way that we did over that spell.
(But) to win the European Championship is, at the moment, no easier
than the World Cup," he told reporters.
"The final four at the World Cup were all European and you've got to
add Spain, Germany, Portugal and all the others into that. It's a
really high-level tournament."
Goals from Harry Winks, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount
gave England their seventh victory in eight qualifying matches.
Captain Kane scored in every match to take his tally to 32 and in
total England banged in 37 goals in eight games, a record for the
country in qualification.
Southgate said England's confidence shone through, especially when
they find themselves in trouble in a game.
"I think the team have belief, for sure," he said.
"You can see the confidence. They don't come into these matches
worrying about what might go wrong.
"They've got the confidence to control games with possession and they
know they're going to score goals."
Since winning the World Cup on home soil in 1966, England have only
made the semis of an international event four times, at the European
Championship in 1968 and 1996 and the World Cups of 1990 and 2018.
Southgate said the next step would be for England to show they can
beat the very top sides, in an international competition.
"What we don't know, because we haven't had those tests more recently
against the top eight or 10 (countries), is exactly how we're going
to cope in those (pressure) moments," he said.