(Reuters) – England’s response to their World Cup quarter-final defeat by France has been so positive that head coach Gareth Southgate says his players have hit a sweet spot and are hungrier than ever to finally deliver a trophy.
There were suggestions that Southgate could walk away after England fell short in Qatar, just as they did when reaching the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and Euro 2020 final.
Instead, he and his team appear re-energised and the squad appears to be richer in quality than ever.
Monday’s 7-0 hammering of North Macedonia, following last week’s 4-0 win in Malta has England walking away with Group C in their bid to qualify for Euro 2024 in Germany.
After four games, England have 12 points and a plus 14 goal difference, with main group rivals Italy on three points from two games. Ukraine are second on six points.
“Post-World Cup, I think we’ve hit a sweet spot where there’s a hunger to go further than we’ve been and desire to keep pushing forward,” Southgate told reporters on Monday.
“We have to keep pushing them now because they’ve set a standard in the last four games against different sorts of opponents, different environments where anything can be possible.
“I think they’ve been really exciting to watch, there’s competition for individual places, there’s competition to get in the squad, but around all of that there’s a brilliant feel within as a group.”
While England’s march towards Germany has been impressive, it should come as no surprise.
England were unbeaten in 10 qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, eight for Euro 2020, 10 for the 2018 World Cup and won 10 out of 10 when qualifying for Euro 2016.
In fact the last time they lost a qualifier for either the Euros or World Cup was in Ukraine in October 2009.
Some will scoff at the quality of the opposition in qualifying groups, but it is also worth remembering that Italy failed to reach the last two World Cups and were beaten by North Macedonia in a World Cup playoff last year.
With European champions and treble winners Manchester City well represented in England’s squad and the likes of new Real Madrid signing Jude Bellingham not even required in the squad for the last two matches, the potential of Southgate’s side is frightening. But they still need to deliver on the big stage.
“We’ve known that accumulating caps is one thing, but accumulating big game experiences is another and also the really pleasing thing is that we’ve got a lot of young players with a lots of caps as well,” Southgate said.
“There’s that competition now and that drives the players, they’ll listen to what you say as a coach, but if there are other players in your position that you know are hunting you down and after your spot, then that drives your performance.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
