World Cup 2018: Southgate asks England to ‘write their own stories’

Gareth Southgate on Monday asked England to bury failures of the past and “write their own stories” as they prepare to face Colombia in the knockout stages of the World Cup.

The last time England won a knockout game at the World Cup was way back in 2006, when David Beckham scored from a 60th minute free-kick to carry the ‘Three Lions’ into the quarterfinals edging past Ecuador in the round of 16.

England then lost to Portugal via penalty shootouts in the quarterfinals and since then defeats to Germany in 2010, Italy in 2012 and infamously to Iceland in 2016 have followed. England even failed to clear the group stages in 2014.

But this English team is different said Southgate.    This young and inexperienced squad is not burdened with expectations which makes them fearless and most importantly on Tuesday they get the opportunity of their lifetime to right the poor record, which the coach believes they are ready to take.

“The point I was making was it’s 10 years since we won a knockout fixture. For this team, it’s a brilliant opportunity to go beyond where more experienced teams have gone before. They’re relishing that chance,” said Southgate at the pre-match conference on Monday.

He had declared the clash against Colombia as their ‘biggest game of the decade’ – a game he feels could shape up future English generations.

“We’re viewing the game as one with an opponent we really respect. They’ve got really good players, and will have lots of supporters in the stadium. I went to two of their matches in Brazil and it was a real carnival atmosphere in the stadium. You want to be involved in this type of match. The lads have the chance to write their own stories now,” he added.

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Dele Alli is expected to start against Colombia after recovering from the thigh injury that kept him out of England’s last two group games against Panama and Belgium.

After two fine victories, including the historic 6-1 win over Panama which was the first time England have scored four or more goals in a single World Cup game, they lost 0-1 to Belgium, qualifying into the knockouts as a second placed team.

But that result seems to have found England in a better position at-least on paper and after the elimination of Spain in the penalty-shootouts against host nation Russia, the 1966 champions now stand with a greater chance of making it to the final.