Played the 7th, 10th, 12th and 14th ranked teams in the world to finish runners up in the tournament so whilst it might have been an easier run to the final than some years, it was no gimme for a team ranked 4th.
in international terms that is like a prem team playing championship sides.
only a few countries have high concentrations of top players. denmark were bringing on brentford players v us and they are 10th in the rankings.
some interesting tidbits re the game last night:
southgates next three penalty takers after saka?
pickford, phillips and grealish.
grealish went on twitter to say he wanted to take one, too.
verratti had more touches than mount, phillips and rice combined
veratti had insane numbers 134 touches, 94% pass completion, 8 interceptions. incredible.
we have players who can potentially match that. but we play phillips because he can run for long time.
columbia, croatia, and italy: early goal followed by meekly sitting back and lumping it into the general direction of a striker on the rare occassions we get the ball
"southgate you're the one..."