Gareth Southgate “so proud” after England progress to Euro 2020 final

Gareth Southgate has described England’s Euro 2020 semi-final win over Denmark as “incredible”.

The England manager led his side to a 2-1 win after Harry Kane finished after his own penalty was saved in extra time.

“I’m so proud of the players. It’s an incredible occasion to be a part of. The fans were incredible all night. We knew it wouldn’t be straightforward. The game in Rome was straightforward. We said to the players we have to show resilience and come back after setbacks and we did that,” Southgate told ITV.

“I felt we’d get there but I knew we’d have a different sort of battle. Denmark are so underrated as a team and they caused us a lot of troubles.

“When you’ve waited as long as we have to get through a semi-final, the players – considering the limited international experience some of them have – have done an incredible job.

“The most pleasing thing is we’ve given the fans and nation a fantastic night and the journey carries on for another four days.

“We suffered in Moscow on a night like this and we’ve managed to put that right.”

England will now play Italy in the final, who are unbeaten in 33 games after defeating Spain yesterday.

“Italy are a very good side. I’ve thought that the last couple of years. They are in outstanding form and have defensive warriors who have been through everything. It’s a great game to look forward to,” Southgate said.

“We’ve had three memorable games on the bounce. We said we want to create memories for our nation. The young ones think it’s always like this. I’ve just had to tell Saka and Bellingham it doesn’t really work like this.

“Finals are there to be won. We’ll regroup and prepare properly. We need to recover tonight, it’s taken a lot physically and mentally. Italy have also had that – although they’ve had an extra day to recover.”

England will have home advantage at the Wembley final on Sunday as they aim to win their first ever European Championships.

Cover Photo: “File:ENG-BEL (1).jpg” by Кирилл Венедиктов is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0